Loved by force, hated by fate
by Patodobrasil
Summary: As the Chosen One, the Force works in peculiar ways around Anakin. However, fate does not care about this and will do everything to make The Chosen One suffer, selling him to the Hutts or even changing events that would only happen in the future. (Very AU)
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! First of all, English is not my first language, so mistakes are a common occurrence. First time posting here with some sense of decency to first review the whole chapter before putting it to be read. Here are some warnings.**

**Very AU.**

**Anidala... because it's too beautiful.**

**I've never seen "the Mandalorian", for reasons of things that will happen later.**

**I'm not a Star Wars mega nerd either, but I do research on wookiepedia to try to get my ideas in order.**

**insinuation of, but no lemon.**

**Yea... I think that's it. Have a good read.**

"Taxes raised, Watto. Either you pay, or the Hutt men will come after you, understand?"

The figure wearing a hoodie and light clothes pointed one of the many fingers of his hand at the parts seller's face, the small flying insect, the size of a child, being apparent.

"Raised?! Again?! How will I keep two slaves, with taxes rising all the time?"

Said Watto, his wings flapping and beating a little more fervently. The loan shark barely cared, shrugging and turning to leave the shop, the sands of the dry deserts of Tatooine were already calmer, since the night was coming and the two suns were setting. With a murmur of anger, Watto flew above the balcony level and followed to the back of the store.

"Ani!" he shouted for the child.

Anakin Skywalker ran to the man in his possession in a certain hurry, letting some metal pieces fall by the wayside.

"What's up, Watto?"

"You heard the conversation with the loan shark, right?" the little blond boy of only seven, eight years old shook his head positively. "Good, 'cause now you'll be working overtime. You're gonna come in at 5:00 in the morning and leave at 11:00 at night. It's either that or I'm gonna have to sell or you or your mom to the Hutts."

A look of terror was born in Anakin's blue eyes. Being a slave to the Hutts is like saying you're food for some monster, even worse if you're a woman... Slowly and swallowing dry, Ani fervently shook his head, watching Watto murmuring to himself as he returned to the front of the store.

Rubbing some oil stains on his face and kicking the sand away, Anakin could only return to the pile of rubble the garbage collectors had brought in this morning, looking for anything that might be useful. Shmi didn't like the thought of her son coming home alone in the middle of the night. This is the worst time for such a young child to be out there. She would lose her floor if Anakin ever didn't come home. With this in mind, every night Shmi Skywalker would pick up her son at work, even if she had to make him dinner at midnight, after all, her shift at work ended only at 10 pm.

For a vague month, everything was stressful in the Skywalkers' life. Hard, but ordinary.

It was only half past eleven in the morning when Watto started buying the stacks of pieces the collectors brought to the store. Anakin, scratching his eyes sleepy, took every pile that was bought to the back of the store, the heavier, the more promising it was.

"I heard that the collectors are venturing far beyond Mos Espa. Has anything happened recently?" asked Watto with a cigarette in his mouth and passed a few credits to the current trash collector. Anakin running to take the huge bag of pieces, forcing his back and legs to lift all the weight and carry it to the back of the store.

"The Separatists and the Republic are fighting in the nearby systems, many pilots and ships are being blown up here. Some ships arrive in incredibly good conditions—only the Tusken who are being a plague in all of this."

"To compete with those pilanters is disgraceful. A tip from me is to buy a droideka; some smugglers are selling their carcasses and weapons in Mos Eisley for some time now."

"Could we have a droideka?" asked Anakin.

"Of course not. Those things are illegal in the Outer Rim, and keep quiet too."

Shouted Watto, bringing his cigarette. Ani snitched on it, going back to the back and starting to look for anything of possible value in the pieces. Separating the ones with wires, the ones with more metal, the ones with engines... Until, finally, his eyes caught one of the biggest pieces at the bottom of the bag, a source of curiosity as he examined it from afar. It didn't look like an engine, since it was so big, but it was too big to be any other part of a speeder... was it a part of a new ship?

Taking and pulling the large block of black iron, Anakin put it on the wooden table, a lot of dust being lifted with it, making he cough. He hates sand... Still, his curiosity made the hate wander, watchful eyes trying to understand exactly what this thing was...! Until, finally, he found two congruent buttons, one on each end of the metal box. Pressing them both at the same time, the cube split, proving to be a suitcase from the beginning... with a strange metal cylinder inside. Taking the cylinder and analyzing it, a feeling of familiarity with that thing appearing inside the boy. He's seen something like this before...

…! With a surprise, his thought reached an end; something like an imaginary lamp appearing above his head. That was a Jedi lightsaber! Like those in the stories his mother read to him! His gaze of pure veneration took away his sense of the real world and was only taken away when Watto had given a loud shout from the bench, frightening Anakin out of his world. Without thinking very hard, he hid the lightsaber inside his pants, moving his head from side to side in an innocent anxiety. Once that was done, he ran to the front of the store one more time.

"Are you going deaf, kid?! Take that bag over there and get the one of the other customer!"

He shouted in Anakin's face, who, frightened, nodded fervently, being quick to pick up the current customer's bag, walking a little more carefully so that the weapon inside his pants wouldn't fall off, being held only by the hook at its end. By much luck, the rest of the day passed without Watto noticing the lightsaber Anakin was hiding, and when the suns no longer showed and the winds were freezing, his mother appeared in front of the store, a sweet smile as she watched the little child cleaning some metal pieces.

"Mother!" said the child with a smile, dropping the piece and the cloth on the counter and running to her, just after noticing her there at the entrance.

"How are you, Ani?"

"Tired..." he let go, looking at Watto inside the store, counting his credits while he smoked a cigarette. The same soon realized he was being watched, making a "go away" sign with one of his hands, where Shmi made a quick measure, returning home with the child on her arms.

"What are we having for dinner tonight, mum?" Shmi's smile wavered with this.

"Today... I'm sorry, Ani. We won't have dinner again tonight."

"Oh... what a shame. Has the price of grain gone up again?"

"Yes, dear. Unfortunately it has."

"I don't understand. We both work so hard, but we have no food…" he said with a certain indignation in his voice, scratching his sleepy eyes.

"It's hard, Ani... But don't worry. The day we'll work less and eat more will come, all right? We just have to hold on.

"Okay, mom." snorted, the little hand under his belly, squeezing it tightly so that somehow the hunger would pass and the pain would take place. It wasn't working, though. However, the gesture reminded him that he was still carrying his lightsaber in his long, loose slave pants. "I stole something from Watto today."

"Another part for your pod? You know I don't like it when you steal, Ani! We're poor, not thieves."

"I know; but he made me start working harder, and yet I eat less than before. It's a little justice, isn't it?" gave his childish logic, which his mother could only sigh in a clear irritation.

"I'll show you when we get home!"

"Fine, but you have to promise me you won't be stealing from Mr. Watto so often. If he finds out, he might sell us out to the Hutts."

"He wouldn't do that, he already owes the Hutts. Without me, he'd be alone in the store, and he'd make a lot less money."

"But if he's not the smart guy?"

She joked, a sigh relieved when the door to her house came into view. Getting into the house, putting little Ani on the floor and locking the door was that routine Shmi knew very well. While doing so, Ani removed the large black and gray metal cylinder from his pants, carefully moving around, pointing the part where the blade would project away from his body. Finally, with a luminescent explosion, a greenish light erupted from the saber and rose for almost 80 centimeters in front. Ani's eyes glowed with how incredible the weapon was, but Shmi gave a sharp scream, a step backwards as she saw the weapon in her son's hands. "What's that, Ani?!"

"It's a lightsaber, mommy!" It swayed a bit, "voosh" noises making themselves with each swing. Something whispered at the foot of his ear; _watch your movements_. "a jedi weapon!"

"Is that... Is that what you stole from Watto, son?"

"Yes! And..." stopped for a second, that voice earlier quoted in your ear whispering once more... "And it was my destiny to find it."

"Is it real?" she's seen her son messing with a lot of dangerous things before. Explosive engines, shock charges that could fry brains... But a lightsaber? That's something she never imagined her child's little hands would hold.

"Yes, it is. I feel like it's real, Mommy. That's not amazing? With this saber, I can become a jedi! And if I become a jedi, then I can fight all the bad guys here and free all the slaves!" In a den of bliss, Anakin turned the blade back to the saber, vehemently embracing his mother, the hunger being just a distant memory in his head now. Without exactly a reaction to all this, all Shmi could do was hug his little child back. "I'll be able to be a hero to everyone, Mama..." whispered, head against the fabric of the dress.

"Yes Anakin... But, I want you to know first of all that you are my hero."

"Your hero?" Ani asked in confusion.

"Exactly. Without my little boy with me, mama could never live well." she said with a sweet smile on her face. Anakin didn't understand the full extent of this speech but, even if not looking directly into his mother's eyes, he felt... Happiness. Pride. Sadness.

"Are you sad, Mom?"

The question was a surprise, but Shmi just let out a slight laugh, her fingers running through the golden threads of her child's hair. Without answering for a while, Shmi took him in her arms, thinned by the lack of food, and carried him to the boy's room. Putting him quietly to bed, her brown eyes met Anakin's blues.

"No, Ani. As long as Mama has you, why would she be sad?" she played with the question, watching him scratch his eyes. Lack of sleep has begun to be part of Anakin's life for some time now, as has the increasingly frequent hunger. She hated being unable to give more, for Anakin deserved more.

"We have no food; we do not sleep properly and are slaves.."

"That's life, Ani. Ours. It's hard, but it doesn't mean it has to be sad. Living a hard, sad life is a lot more complicated than just one that's hard, don't you think"- played with it by tickling Ani's neck a few times, the lightsaber having been placed on the sandstone dresser next to the bed.

"I think so. But I still think you're sad... I felt it."

"Did you feel it? Do you have Jedi powers or what?" her little joke took one more laugh out of Ani. "Still, even the most powerful jedi must respect their mothers, and now I'm telling you it's your bedtime, so you're going to sleep."

"all right, I guess." saw the moment when Shmi pulled the sheet slightly torn to cover his little body, the pillow being shaken from the sand that clung to it.

"Sleep well, darling. Mama loves you." With the prolonged kiss on the child's forehead, Shmi got up from the edge of the bed.

"I love you too, mama. Good night." Whispered, the drowsiness picking him up more than he imagined, now that he was totally comfortable in his bed. Leaving the room quickly and turning off the light, Shmi gave her child one last kiss in the air, closing the door afterwards. In the quiet room, Anakin looked around him... The moonlight illuminated the large amount of sand floating in the air, irritating him. He hates sand.

_... Push it away..._

That voice in the back of his mind spoke, but Ani was too sleepy to call. Looking at the lightsaber with a yawn, Ani let himself be taken to the world of dreams. Strangely enough, no sand was flying in the air now.

.

.

.

_You are not my Chosen One..._

What?! Surrounded by a big nothing, Ani heard the same voice at the bottom of his ear... Now, however, it sounded as if it was coming from something in his front. But not even something existed. It was all... Nothing. Looking from one side to the other, really nothing was seen. The only question on his mind was; "What's going on?...".

_But... you are the Chosen One of the Force._

As suddenly as he arrived, an aura had appeared in front of him. Green and calm. The voice carried no intonation that differed from sex. It was neither male nor female... It was a choir of voices. Carefully, Ani observed that aura.

_Therefore, it is my obligation to prepare you for your future, Chosen One._

Finally feeling that he had vocal cords, Ani spoke.

\- Chosen One... from Force?

_Yes. You will understand in the future. Now, I shall begin your training._

\- What will we train? And what exactly are you?

_I am the crystal inside the lightsaber you found, Ani. I belong to a being called "Yoda." You will be trained, according to the Force, to reach a potential that no ordinary living being could achieve._

"A crystal... that communicates."

_I speak by force; all Kyber crystals possess life._

"But I still don't understand exactly what we're going to train..."

_Your training will be to control the Force that surrounds everything. Currently, the Force is out of balance, so you will have to balance it._

"Balance... Between what in the Force?"

_Between the dark side and the light side._

"I'll train on which one?"

"_This, fate will show you. Each side will be fed by your emotions, however you can choose which one to make stronger. While the light side uses feelings like peace and love, the dark side uses anger and resentment."_

"And... which one is stronger?"

_You choose which side you want to be the stronger one._

"Oh. I see."

_Our training will begin with the most basic that a sensitive force can learn; meditation._

From that dream, Anakin began to learn about the "Force", taught by a living crystal. It may sound as crazy as possible, but in a child's mind there is nothing wrong with it. With his little free time, Ani meditated and sought to understand the Force more deeply, but finding it difficult to exactly feed one side with his feelings, just as he was confused between which side to choose. He became very angry at everything Watto did with him; his hunger made him resentful and only more hateful. However, he had a lot of love for his mother, and he felt peace when he fixed his Pod racer and improved it with new pieces. Out of his doubts, he decided that he would deliver all his emotions to the side he needed most; Kyp, as he decided to call the crystal, said it was a wise idea.

Many things didn't go unnoticed now. He felt the feelings of many people very clearly; so much hatred, so much pain... so many dark feelings. A question that crossed his mind, therefore, was which side the Jedi preferred. Kyp said it was the light side of the Force. Ani then automatically associated the light side with the good side... Still, Kyp told him that no side is good or bad, just as not every Jedi is good. Never before has little Ani been so conflicted about it. The most noticeable thing, though, was with his owner; Watto.

He was always so afraid. A fear of the unknown, the inevitable.

... as if he expected something to happen.

And almost two months after Anakin had his first conversation with Kyp, that fear came true. It was only 9:00 in the morning. Strengthening his body with the little control of the Force he had, Anakin carried all the scrap bags and pieces that the first trash collectors brought in. Once in a while, he listened to a few conversations; how the frequency of ships falling into Tatooine increased, and how this made both the Jawas and the Tusken venture closer to the settlements, frightening the population. The attacks were becoming more common than before, as they now have more weapons and more parts.

A conversation caught Anakin's attention, however.

"Jabba got tired, Watto."

"But I still have two weeks! I'm collecting the necessary money, I'll pay!" - The man was never so afraid, Anakin could feel every speck of fear flowing from his heart. Swallowing dry, Anakin walked to the store counter, watching Watto's argument with a man dressed in brown robes. From what he heard, one of Jabba's loan sharks.

"You had more than enough time. Jabba decided to confiscate your slaves..." the man was dripping with lethality, Anakin felt. His heart was racing and a bad feeling came from him next, along with a horrendous sensation of death. Before Watto could even make another peep, the man pulled a pistol blaster from his cloak, shooting and blowing Watto's head off as if it were made of butter. Blood flew in Ani's face, eyes wide-open and body static. "Anakin Skywalker, I suppose. You are now property of Jabba the Hutt."

"... But... What happens to my mother?" was the only thing he could think of.

"We already have her on the train. She went first."

"But... they're gonna hurt her, aren't they?"

"I saw some of her; she's pretty... She'll certainly die for Jabba's fun." Whispered, a diversion from the silent panic that arose on Anakin's face. "Now come. Perhaps you can see your mother once more, before she goes into some creature's stomach, hahaha!" he laughed loudly, grabbing the boy's arm and walking out of the store, not even caring about Watto's dead body. Other man walked past them, heading to the balcony. Anakin could just glimpse as he start to search for all the credits Watto had.

The record hardly fell to Anakin all the way. Right after leaving the parts store, the man put him in a speeder full of other people, men of the Jabba. The story of Anakin and his mother was told, humiliation done by the various voices of the men, all involving his mother being raped, killed, mistreated... Everything. And Anakin simply wouldn't react. His eyes focused on nothingness, his mind wandering... For so far, the feeling of death has not faded.

A sudden radio message came just as they were entering the dunes.

"Our train is being attacked... by the damn Tusken!"

**Tip of the day: Never come to Brazil, for the sake of your own safety.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Whassup. So, the chapter ahead is really something... Dark. If you don't like a kid going on a killing spree, please do not read.**

Little Ani's eyes widened when the news reached his ears. If before that feeling of death was like a fire in his heart, freezing his mind and numbing his senses... Hearing this raised the flames to a complete and utter hell. Before he left Watto's shop, he heard the loan shark say that his mother had gone on a train before they did...

.

.

.

Swallowing dry without even realizing it, Anakin watched the five men in the speeder go into a state of euphoria, the copilot shouting on the obsolete radio that people like them were still using.

"What's your position?!"

"790X, 42Y! The bastards stole all the slaves and killed three of our men! Come on, they so shot me and Ku-" his voice was cut off when an explosive noise happened on the other side of the line, closing the call at the same moment.

"Shit... Speed up that tub, we gotta get back to Central right away!" shouted to the pilot who, with a frantic nod, made the accelerator reach its maximum speed, the sand being pushed back hard.

"This slave train... Is the one my mother was?" he suddenly questioned, really praying it wasn't.

"Remember what I said about maybe you'd go see your mom one more time, kid? So... I guess not!" Shouted in his face, the tension was broken by a clumsy symphony of laughter from the five men. Comments and fingers pointed at Anakin's face happened quickly, the look of pure terror on the child was ignored... But Ani didn't care. Everything was silent to him. These men did not matter, only his growing and endless inner fear. Gradually, his heart began to lift, as did his eyes. The blue reflected each of their faces, but it seemed that Ani himself did not see them... Flashes passed quickly through his head. His mother's sincere smile, always sweet and happy, no matter how difficult the time. Her malnourished body and the times he caught her with her stomach snoring, but gave up the food so that Ani would have a little more. His love for his mother was making his heart catch fire, his breathing getting pierced... She was so amazing, so good to him…

... And that's what she got in return? Wasn't that enough injustice to his mother?! Being a slave, not being able to eat, not being able to rest... And now being killed by the Tusken... No! Inside of Anakin, the flames that destroyed his heart cried out. That veiled feeling of death had not yet passed... And he remembered what the man shouted on the radio; the Tusken took the slaves...there's a chance his mother is alive. He has to go after her. Quickly.

"We must change course! We have to go to where the attack happened!" Ani shouted, despair rising in him when suddenly the Force whispered to him... You're right.

"Are you crazy, kid?! Did your mother's death leave you with a tantrum?!" one of the men around Ani screamed, pushing Ani to the side with a wheeze. The back of the speeder shook when the boy fell to the metal ground, but still screaming soon after.

"No! She didn't die, I know she didn't! Please, we have to go in there and rescue-" it was cut with a kick from one of Hutt's other men.

"Shut up! Nobody's gonna risk their life for your fucking mother, boy! And, indeed, she may still be alive, I bet the Tusken will love to play with her!" Laughed louder, a kick hitting Ani's ribs... **No one would help him. Nobody was going to help his mother. **Perceptions kept him quiet, but not without a reaction. Panting as he faced his own hand lying on the ground, Anakin began to have his mind clouded by thoughts…

_Feed the side that suits best the situation._

It was something Kyp talked about so long ago... Still, he always remained confused. He wanted to be a Jedi now, and thus save his mother from slavery. But how should he feed the light side with the fear of losing her?! With the hatred he feels of these men, the Hutts of Watto and anyone who has a slave?! Kyp said only the dark side of Force uses those feelings…

And the side he chooses gets stronger as Anakin feeds him... So his only choice is to be a Jedi... A hero to his mother... while he uses the dark side of the Force.

And Anakin, in his desperation, fed all his emotions and feelings to the dark side of the Force.

His hatred burned as never before, his pain tore him from the inside out and reverberated with a beastly scream out of his throat. Images of the hell he has lived since he met people crossed his mind and took possession of his rational thinking. His fingernails tightened the metal from the ground for a second, even the air reacting around him. With a difficult movement, his right hand flew inside his shirt, pulling the lightsaber and turning it on the moment he rose from the ground at first sight. The man who had kicked him before could not even react when the hot blade beheaded him through his neck, weaving and shaving each cell, the speed of the speeder making the head fly in the wind. The other two in the back were put to the test with a scream and a "What the kriff!", both cut off when Ani rocked his saber like a bow, the blade burning everything in its path. The co-pilot in front, stunned for only a moment by the death of the three men, did a quick job of getting the gun from his holster... only to suddenly be pushed by an invisible force out of the speeder, flying several meters against the high speed, his body bumping into the sand.

"Holy shit!" Scared, the pilot suddenly lost all direction, swinging the whole train and, in this way, causing it to crash into the sands, two or three rolls when the inertia was done. Both the man who was pushed by force and the pilot came out alive, extremely injured, however... Ani, on the other hand, got up with only a few scratches of sand, blood in a thread at the side of his face. Being close enough to the pilot, the child once again called out the lightsaber, stocking the weapon through the head of the man fallen into the sand and penetrating it without any difficulty, the impregnating smell of burning flesh being ignored by the frenzy of emotions that little Anakin's body was.

_Behind... _

The Force whispered and, quickly, Anakin turned with only a few moments to raise his hand in the direction of the danger that hoisted the hair of his arms... The man who had previously killed Watto, strangely, let the blaster fall through his fingers, his hands running to his neck, his skin gradually becoming purple-blue and his eyes bulging out of the orbits. Falling to its knees on the warm sands, his mouth gushed out threads of saliva from the corners, his cheeks inflated... And Ani watched everything with cold eyes.

A loud noise reverberated and disappeared into nothingness, followed by the corpse's thump against the ground.

And then... Ani just watched. His eyes hovered over the body of the man who died with a broken throat. Then, it went to the man with his head showing a smoky hole, burnt black matter and branding his burned brain, Anakin guesses, his eyes went to the speeder seconds later. It was in good condition, but he would have to let the wagon disengage if he wanted a higher speed... Still, his mind went back to all that. It was hard to tell from the adrenaline that numbed his blood... But Anakin had just taken the lives of five men.

And he felt nothing but accomplishment. And power.

... Power flowed inside him. A tremendous power. A capable power. Looking at the lightsaber in his hand while panting, Ani came to the conclusion that what he did was the right thing to do. He was like a Jedi killing the bad guys, all for his mother's sake... And the dark side of the Force responded by dancing inside him, only increasing his heart rate, the feeling of the Force running between his veins being overwhelming. If delivering so much to the dark side would make him so strong... Then he would deliver whatever was necessary to save his mother.

"790X, 42y..." whispered to himself the coordinates he'd heard before. Activating the green lightsaber once again, the hitch of the wagon was undone in a show of luminescent particles, leaving only the speeder. Being the best driver this universe had ever seen and having competed once in a Pod race and survived, Ani was quick to unravel the speeder with the Force and proceed with it to the coordinates where his mother had been abducted, every ounce of despair, fear and anxiety that his heart pumped being delivered to the dark side.

With almost forty minutes through the burning deserts of Tatooine, Anakin saw in the distance a scant black smoke... And his eyes saw as they were sent down, a speeder similar to the one he is using, but that one exploded. Dead men surrounded him.

...and Tusken alive too.

Suddenly, a massive amount of anger erupted within Ani while seeing the sand people searching the wreckage for what might be useful. There were only five of them, all carrying blasters... and he still couldn't see his mother anywhere... They must have taken her to their camp. It didn't take long for one of the Tusken to notice Anakin coming in the distance, the guns pointed in the child's specific direction. Raising his hand, two of the men were instantly massacred, the destroyed carcass of the speeder passing with swiftness over them. The other three men faced it with fright, screaming in confusion.

The few seconds he gained were enough time for Ani to fly past them with his speeder, raising a lot of dust and sand, covering their faces. Clumsy but barely noticed, the boy jumped out of the speeder and, with his lightsaber in hand, rushed towards the three Tusken. He felt their fear, feeding his desire to slaughter them... However, nothing stopped them from simultaneously raising their weapons in the direction of the child. A powerful push of force threw them to the ground, though... Ani barely had any control of the Force, but he indeed replaced this flaw using only his massive, sheer power. The power only the Chosen One can bear.

With all three on the ground and their weapons gone, the child was quick to cut off two heads with his saber, leaving only one of them who, frightened, was trying to get up. Ani stopped him and ghostly grabbed his throat, causing him to kneel on the ground. With a gaze of pure anger, Ani observed that mask that all the sand people wear. In huttese, he shouted.

_"Where did you take the slave woman who was there?!"_

_"The... The camp to the east - only fifteen kilometers from here! Don't kill me, please!"_ He asked for mercy... But he was properly put down when the lightsaber made his head drop off his shoulders, rolling across the sand. Ani had never really heard that request for pity, the growing hatred in his chest for those plagues made his ears deaf. Hate was an inferno inside him and it kept growing bigger and bigger, and the power of the dark side moved him to mount the speeder once again, leaving for the place where the Tusken had indicated.

Later on that day, he saw smoke rising to the heavens. It wasn't smoke from an accident or an explosion, though... the Tusken camp had a few tents, people here and there, walking around carefree and eating with no care for the world around them. The stench was felt from afar, even when Ani parked his speeder on the slope of a hill of rocks that surrounded the camp in the shape of a half-moon. In the Force, the smell of rotting corpses, piss and rotting carcasses of other animals reached him and repudiated him. They lived almost sunken on the sand and were monsters capable of any atrocities... Ani hated them. He hated those disgusting people with all his heart. Shaking the saber in his hand, he tried to feel his mother in the Force the same way he learned to do in the first week of training with Kyp.

…! And he felt her. An expansive smile opened between his lips. And it just disappeared right after. She was in deep pain. A lot of pain. And in her pain, the hatred of the creatures increased. Trying not to waste another second, Ani ran to the camp trying to be as stealthy as he could. But just as he was getting close to the first tent, a loud bark of an animal began. Turning scared, he stared at three Tusken dogs there, thirsty and salivating... It was no surprise when, together, they both advanced in Anakin front. Feelings of haste took over when, using the lightsaber, he divided the monstrous animals into smoking flesh, but the damage was already done.

Huttese words indicated that three, four Tusken were coming to investigate all the noise.

Acting fast, Anakin brought the lightsaber back and threw himself under the tent cloth, trying to be as fast as possible by sliding inside. Nobody saw him, but it was a fact that they were going to investigate this tent soon after... Entering it, his eyes fell on the person who lived there. A Tusken woman, holding three sleepy babies in her lap... Seeing that made him sick. She emanated such peace while sleeping with her cubs in her arms. Peace... But they were animals. They all are. Clenching his teeth, his saber once again was drawn out, the noise of the green blade waking the woman asleep in the pile of clothes.

Anakin was quick to put her and her babies back to sleep.

.

.

.

...it was only after Anakin killing actually realized what he had done...! A terrifying face reached him, his blue eyes suddenly creaking in fear. He killed a mother and three babies... all who had done nothing. And he didn't even think. He just called them animals and ended their lives. He didn't...

... No... Even children... It didn't matter. They were all animals! Every one of them was going to grow up and become like their parents! They'd kidnap people, kill them just for their crazy fetishes and repeat without caring. Hate filled him at the moment the resentment was fed completely on the dark side. He looked one last time at the bodies against the ground, holding his lightsaber a little harder, and without looking behind his back, he was out of the tent... They were going to find him somehow or other. So Anakin preferred to catch them before they could fight back. His hatred had, for only a moment, overcome his desire to save his mother, that moment was when he, quickly, beheaded the male creature who was standing at the side of the tent, reading something on a piece of paper. Confused eyes stared at the noise, a commotion beginning when they saw the child there, a luminous weapon in his hands and eyes full of hate.

Guns were raised in his direction, dogs ran at him... And Anakin, increasingly fulling his hated of hate, cut them off. Using the Force, he made the remains of campfires, stones, boxes and the Tusken's own weapons fly at them, bewildering them or killing them right there. Those who tried to escape, Anakin pulled back with force, beating their bodies against the other animals. Dead bodies were also thrown by the Force. Like a maestro, the Chosen One used the Force as an extension of himself from birth, eradicating all monsters with blood in their eyes. Screams filled the air and the smoke of burning bodies made a cloud rise to the skies of Tatooine. No one his red-hot eyes saw managed to flee from the burning blade of the lightsaber... This, however, was still the first time that Ani actually used the saber to attack people. The lack of practice or technique, together with the limited control of the Force, left him in a lint.

However, all the damned Tusken had been annihilated as sick banthas.

.

Tacitly panting and turning his head to all sides, his eyes only found smoking bodies on the ground. In the Force, no vitality was felt, a black mass of emotions was circling that place... And Anakin didn't feel bad or anguished. The dark side of the Force gave him unimaginable powers, which he used to destroy the plagues as will.

Meanwhile, the dark side flowed into him once again when a new burst of emotion struck his head. Fear, pain. His mother's presence became his priority when, limping and slowly, Ani walked towards her tent. Some Tusken had hit him with stones and sometime in the rush of the blood, a shot grazed his left shoulder.

In comparison, the fact that he was alive denied any importance of these injuries under his body.

Staggering with difficulty, he entered the tent where his mother was... And the sight horrified him, an intense outburst of feelings resuming when he saw her there... And, strangely enough, not just emotions from the dark side. Relief and pain, anxiety and love. His mother was crying softly against a wooden stake stuck to the ground, her red face stained with blood and her clothes not as torn as Ani's... However, Shmi's legs could barely leave her really standing, only remaining that way because of her hands tied above her head. Blood dripped between his mother's legs. Ignoring the world and everyone, Ani screamed with an immeasurable amount of pain in his childish voice.

"Mother!"

The scream alerted Shmi who, with incredulity, moved her head towards the entrance of the tent.

"Ani..."

"Mom" in another scream, and the child was hugging his mother with an utter necessity, not caring about the dirt covering their bodies, the putrid smell or the blood dripping. The tears of before turned into a flood through the eyes of the eldest, her mouth trembling with the image of her son. She didn't even need to have any power to say how bad he looked. His eyes reflected dread, his hands were shivering, and the pale tone of his skin was not accurate with the golden tone he acquired living under the two suns of Tatooine.

"Oh, my little Ani... What have they done to you?" As she asked, Anakin once again lit his saber, cutting the ties that held his mother's hands. The moment she fell, Shmi's thin, bruised arms reached her son, wrapping him in a tight embrace. "I worried so much about you."

"There's nothing more to fear, Mama... I executed them all."

"My little hero... my Jedi knight." With a painful smile, Shmi just squeezed him tighter, a long kiss in his hair. Being sold to the Hutts was the least of his worries in the face of all that was happening now. Tired to the extreme, Ani let the lightsaber fall from his hands, trying to gather on his mother's back and embrace her more calmly. Anakin was too tired that his senses relaxed in the Force, the loss of power on the Dark Side weakening him too much.

Suddenly, the tent was bombarded by laser shots.

Anakin lost his sense of space as blood flew into the air, a body falling on him and protecting him against the energy projectiles. As his eyes, cold and open to the core, watched the blood begin to fall from his mother's face, he lost every portion or cohesive thinking he imagined he had... The Dark Side strength returned in an explosion. With a bestial cry, but wrapped in pain, everything within a 10-meter radius around the tent was slaughtered by an invisible force. The three Tusken who had managed to escape unnoticed and came back to kill the boy who entered the tent had their skeletons going through their flesh, blood gushing in the air, rocks exploding into dust clouds and sand being lifted up like a wave. All this followed by just a single word;

**"MOTHER!"**

... And the suns of Tatooine were setting themselves on the horizon hours later. In the distance, Anakin observed smoke rising to the skies from a fire that had just gone out. The sight from above these rocks allowed his blue eyes to see the tents and the burning bodies of the Tusken in the camp... No regrets reflected by the slave. His mother died quickly, with only one shot in the back of the head... Turning his eyes to the tomb he dug at the top of this large rock, Anakin could only nurture the dark side a little more... And yet the feeling of deep pain, of endless sorrow, did not go away. Here on this rocky hill, his mother would be far away from the sand. Tears flowed down in threads around Ani's face while, with a slow step, he began to descend the hill, not failing to look at Tatooine's binary sunset one last time.

Just after what happened at the Tusken camp and before setting fire to everything, Anakin took what he could from them. A big speeder-truck was what he was driving now, charging dozens of batteries, weapons, clothes, parts and, most importantly... Food. The Tusken had a lot of food stored. And it unnerved him. How mindless animals as they had so much food, but the slaves of Tatooine spent days without eating?! In a vow of silence a few minutes ago, Anakin promised he would vanquish the Tusken from the soil of Tatooine. He was going to wipe out that race of demented people. He was going to destroy them, and he was going to love every second that his saber ran through their flesh... And with everything he took from them, he would distribute it to the slaves of Tatooine.

His clothes had also been changed. He decided to become the opposite end of a Tusken, which wore light and white clothes... Anakin wore broad black clothes, a thick cloth serving as a cloak above his shoulders.

Entering his speeder-truck, Anakin sighed heavily... And soon the tears began to, once again, weave their way across his face. His mother had called him a Jedi... a hero... And in his arms, she died. Anakin is the only one to blame for not protecting his mother. It's all his fault. And in the Force, the Dark Side began to consume little Ani more and more powerfully.

_**\- 2 years later -**_

"A hyperdrive? Here? You must be crazy, pal." the salesman spoke, watching the strange man in front of him while drinking a glass of something alcoholic. Along with him was an ass-whupping Gungan, a mechanical robot as well as a young lady. A strange party, with a strange request. The man sighed hard, seeming to think for a few moments.

"Why would I be crazy for asking about a hyperdrive?"

"Since the Slave Revolution last year, all the parts stores around here are being closed. No collectors, no merchandise. Some moved to Mos Eisley or other settlements with the lowest influence of slaves possibly... To be honest, though, you could get an easy hyperdrive in Mos Eisley, you know?"

"You said something about the Slave Revolution. Tell me more." the girl back there seemed to take an interest in that conversation, a sharp look on her face as she questioned the seller.

"It happened out of nowhere. From one week to the next, the slaves got weapons, food and parts. It was no surprise when a genocide of slaveholders began, especially here in Mos Espa. Their bombs were being smuggled out, so controlling them became incredibly difficult. The Revolution began when Jabba himself began to pursue the slaves since they all belonged to him. They managed to get them out of Mos Espa, but the next attacks were total failures. The slaves were armed with everything, whether it was simple ships, laser weapons or speeders. With the first attacks being fought back, the slaves forced their way into other settlements; everything in the north is their domain, for example. Try to be careful while walking through Tatooine, many attacks happen at night, especially from slave hunters."

"Why are they hunting the slaves? Why not just try diplomacy? After all, slavery is illegal in our democratic Republic." the girl spoke in a cocky tone and with her nose up.

"We're on the Outer Rim, the claws of the Republic don't get here, lass." said the seller, staring with a closed eye.

"Well... I guess it's impossible to get a hyperdrive around here then. What would be the best way to get to this place, Mos Eisley?" asked Qui-Gon.

"Mos Eisley is over 10,000 miles west of here. It'll be three days with the fastest speeder to get there. Either you pay an absurd amount of credit and get off at the airport that's in the far north of Mos Espa, or you ask one of the Pest Terminators to take you to Mos Eisley."

"And who are these Pest Terminators?"

"Some kind of group of killers. They hunt any "pestilence" for money; Jabba's men, Tusken, Jawas, Bounty Hunters. Formed mostly by slaves." spoke, his hand scratching his jaw and, soon after, taking the glass of alcohol and throwing the contents down his throat.

"I see. And where could I contact them?"

"I don't think you understand correctly. Any hunter would charge an absurdity to take you to Mos Eisley, and they might still arrest you if you try to use Republic credits to pay"- That line made Qui-Gon frown slightly. However, before he could speak, the man cut him off. "There's only one guy I think would do that for free."

"Good, then hope is not all lost." Further back, the brown-haired girl spoke.

"See? Jar Jar said we'd get something!" said the Gungan, an empty jar stuck in his foot. Where did that come from? Nobody knows.

"Um... I suppose there's something else behind all this." Qui-Gon spoke lightly, the salesman staring at him in the corner of the eye.

"Well... the only person who can take you to Mos Eisley is a nine-year-old." spoke, seeing the confused looks that spread to those two. The girl was the first to speak.

"I'm sorry, but I think I heard you wrong".

"Oh, did you heard 'nine years old'?" she wavered her head with a small smiler, expecting the seller to correct himself. "Good, then you can clearly hear like a normal person, kid!" the salesman laughed at her statement.

"May I conclude that you're making fun of us, sir?" Her eyes are shaped in impatience.

"We'll listen to him before we jump to conclusions." the older man spoke, stopping the girl with a calm but severe look. Lickin' his lips for a second and pondering, Qui-Gon resumed his speech. "Could you clarify, please?"

"It is always that same reaction! All of the core people act like this; Ani was the one who incited the revolution and armed the population a year ago. He's a crazy kid and an unscrupulous killer, but an incredible pilot."

"Killer? I refuse to believe that a child could carry a title of killer." the girl spoke in a real outrage and disgust at the salesman's dull joke, and the answer was not pleasant.

"That's because you didn't see him. Better yet... you're not a Tusken in his sights." This time the man did not laugh, his face becoming more serious. "Let me tell you a history, little girl. Three months ago, the Tusken tried to destroy the old settlement I lived in with bombs. Ani was there and blowing it all up seemed like a desperate solution to save them from extinction." The salesman's humorless tone kept both humans quiet, the robot and the Gungan paying no attention to the story. "It was chaos... But only one or two houses exploded in the bombing. As soon as the third bomb was going down, nothing happened. But I saw it with my own eyes; the third, fourth, fifth... Eight bombs in total. All stopped in the air... And the boy just pointed his hand at them. After that, the usual happened. The Tusken speeders exploded and the bombs were thrown into the dunes, the ones that survived not being stopped by Ani's lightning blade. And he never took his breath away for a second. He was calm about everything. Killing is the only thing that kid can do. Because situations like that, he gained the surname of 'Demon without fear'."

The story sounded extremely fictional. Even a liar at many points. However, the surprise was what remained in Qui-Gon's and Padmé's eyes, caught specifically in the final details of the seller's story. Weapon of Light, ability to make objects float... Was this child a lost padawan? Qui-Gon had to change the goals in his mind; not only protect Padmé Amidala, but also find this lost padawan and finally leave this planet.

**Little thing to know: Dorme and Sola mean, respectively, Sleep and Insole in Portuguese.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Whassup! A new chapter and, damn, five reviews! First time responding to them! So... **

**"CosyRox, Ch 1 and 2" - **thanks for the support man! I'm too excited to write their interactions, so many potentials I see for the future!

**"FixStarWars20, Ch 2" **\- thanks! Ohh... And the things I will do about him and his understanding of the Jedi Order! His position in this UA is going to be straight different from the movies.

**"Death Fury, Ch 1 and 2" **\- thanks to you too, sir! Going to keep it as far as I can

**Thanks for all the support! We have 10 favorites and 14 followers! Anyway, gonna cut my monologue right there; have a nice read!**

* * *

Smoke rose high at the foot of a gigantic desert dune, a rocky cliff surrounding it as a kind of fault in the geography of the site. From above, however, it was easy to see several low-powered but high-capacity speeders and some men escorting them. By the brown clothes of most, the ones they brought were men from Jabba, the Hutt who named himself King of Tatooine, having the right to all and any life that the planet carried as subjects. To Jabba, all must bow down before him and satisfy his desires. The Slave Rebellion, however, was being a pebble in his shoe for the past year. Regular or air transportation was almost always intercepted and many credits were being spent just for the slaves to attack, take down one or two ships, blow up some speeders and, in the next moment, run. So more credits were spent than he would have liked to transport goods from settlements to others. The safest way to move cargo was through more enclosed areas, like caves or dunes. But it was still expensive.

Nowadays, speeders were carrying several containers of weapons and batteries for the blasters for the troops in Mos Diin, one of the settlements with the largest number of weapons and men ready to fight, totally in Jabba's domain... Still, recent Rebellion attacks are leaving him with a flea behind his ear; the rebels always attack the cargoes of supplies, parts, medicine and weapons, all in order respectively... However, many attacks on cargoes of weapons are being made. Many. They are spending too much on these attacks, whether supply or medicine, but they are still succeeding in 7/10 of the attacks. If Jabba spy's last report is right, by the end of the month the Rebellion will have over 20,000 slaves ready to fight, 780 speeders, 102 ships, 8,000 obsolete bombs and 12 All Terrain Tanks armed with high-potency lasers.

Yes, it was very clear a large scale attack was approaching.

With an a team of seventy armed men, Jabba's man, the one who seemed to be the most important, after all, he was the one with the biggest gun and was shouting orders for the men to organize and speed up the transport through the cave network, looked at a holo in his right palm. Intel airborne around the delivery path of the transport of more than 2.470 blasters and 50 mounted medium-potency laser weapons had just informed him that one of the ships had been knocked down by a missile attack. Terrible... He was already expecting the shipment to be attacked, even though he didn't imagine it would be so soon. Securing the holo in his armor, he watched the men rushing the entire shipment, the speeders' engines roaring loudly. They had to enter the tunnel quickly or they would be exposed to attacks from above and until reinforcement arrived from Mos Diin's settlement, it would be a few minutes.

"PICK UP THE PACE! OR DO YOU WANT TO BE KILLED BY SLAVE SCUM?!" the man shouted, his voice penetrating the soldiers' ears and making them speed up the march, the space of that fault being too narrow for 70 men, under two suns, together with tons and tons of machines, pass without problems.

On the horizon, an explosion noise was made and the men silenced for a moment... The second airborne patrol ship had been brought down. They had no more air support and are now depending only on the scout unit that was a few miles ahead for new information. Seconds after the 2nd ship crashed, that information came in a new hollow for General Yupo.

"_The slaves are surrounding everything in the path! We tried to make a volley fire out of the cave, but they're using a mounted Gatling Gun!"_ shouted as loud as he could, gunfire being heard in the message. Not only laser weapons but even extremely old weapons made of iron and gunpowder, they were using. For the current Confederation war against the Republic, Tatooine was a planet that was still in the stone age for things like this. However, firearms were much cheaper to maintain and make than laser weapons. He doubted very much that slaves have a way to generate billions of AMP of energy needed to recharge thousands of blasters, something very common in Core Worlds, however.

Fearful, the men raised their weapons as soon as they entered the cave, the sounds of the shots bouncing off even if they were at least 2 kilometers from the cave entrance. The message continued as the general, with his blaster machine gun, thought about the words he would use to send the report of this attack to the Central.

_"They're moving in with speeders! I see three, four of them_—_**OH MY GOD! FALL BACK, FALL BACK! FALL BACK THE TRANSPORT, WE HAVE TO SAVE THE CARGO—**__"_ shouted from across the line with extreme vehemence now, but being suddenly quiet. The man's cry was filled with palpable terror, the 70 men staring confused and apprehensive. A tone of pure fear, purely visible defeat... Biting his teeth, Yupo realized exactly what the silenced soldier who had sent the message on the holo saw the very moment before his dead… a man of many names in Tatooine; Messiah of the Slaves; Tuskenslayer; Fallen Jedi; Eyes of Fire... The Demon with no Fear. Anakin Skywalker had just entered this armed attack of the Rebellion. In case they don't retreat now, they'll die for sure. No man will raise a weapon to Anakin, he noticed this just by flashing his eyes across the faces of the soldiers, lit brightly by the artificial lights on the speeders... They were all coming to the same conclusions as him. And everyone was extremely alarmed. As soon as they get a chance, they'll run for their lives with everything they can.

Swallowing dry, he faced the full extent of the cargo he was carrying; if that cargo arrived in Mos Diin, many men would be armed and the next campaign Jabba is planning on doing will be an unimaginable success. If he retreats, he may lose his rank as General and make the Lord of Tatooine hate him, which would result in his death... Sooner or later, they would have to deal with Anakin Skywalker, who has been a huge asset to the Slaves. Defeat him and kill him... No, capture him. If he could capture Anakin Skywalker, then the entire Slave Rebellion would be demoralized within seconds. Wars would be lost non-stop. Jabba would win it all in just three shifts... And he would become his right-hand man, surrounded by the greatest luxuries, of the most beautiful togrutas women, human... of any kind. With his heart racing in indecision, but great greed in his eyes, the General raised his voice, drawing the attention of the soldiers.

"SOONER OR LATER, ANAKIN SKYWALKER WOULD APPEAR! BUT FEAR NOT, MEN! HE IS A KILLER, BUT NOT IMMORTAL! IF WE WIN NOW, WE WILL BE LOVED BY JABBA! WE WILL BE HEROES! IF WE LOSE, WE'LL JUST BE COWARDS OF ANOTHER ATTACK BY UNGRATEFUL SLAVES! COME WITH ME, RAISE YOUR WEAPONS! WE WILL STRIKE A FATAL BLOW AND DESTROY THE MOST VALUABLE PIECE OF THE SCUM TODAY! THINK OF THE MONEY THAT WILL COME WITH IT! THINK OF THE LIFE OF PURE LUXURY! THINK HOW MUCH YOU CAN BRAG ABOUT TAKING THE LIFE OF ANAKIN SKYWALKER!" his cries were accompanied by saliva gushing in the air, but the morale of the seventy men rose like a water geyser. Shouts flew from the men, full of what the future of glory awaits them if the task is accomplished. Weapons were raised like forks and torches, and with the speeders, the men continued to march cave in, the determination to face Skywalker was mixed with the greed of their own earnings.

The deeper they went into the channel made by a Jabba tunneler a few weeks ago, the higher the shots went... as well as less and less frequently. 15 minutes later, no metal or laser bullet fire was heard crossing the air and reverberating in the cave. Some men swallowed dry, their emotions having cooled in the meantime. On the other hand, the majority was still prepared for the gains, constant words of an imminent victory being shouted out by the General. Today, the men wore gas masks and visors so that tactics using poisonous or sleeping gases would not affect them. In that short time, reinforcements arrived to protect the transport of weapons from behind, twenty speeders being dispatched; 10 to take care of the exit of the cave and the other 10 the entrance of the cave and help General Yupo take down the rebels.

In the middle of the tunnel, more than 30 minutes after they entered and 15 after the reinforcements were dispatched, the shooting and bombing began once again... just as the light outside the cave was shining in the General's eyes.

"WITH ME MEN! ADVANCE AND ARM THE REFLECTOR SHIELDS! SECOND DIVISION, STRONG A VOLLEY ABOVE THE SHIELDS!" shouted the general, straightening his weapon and, with ferocity in his eyes, starting to run along with his men, all of the Shield Division pulling something out of their belts. Tatooine's suns burned over their clothes when the whole division of the shields came out, being quick to throw themselves on the ground in a circle, the purple reflector shields being activated and forming a defense. The general, along with 30 other standing men, gathered above the protective shields; chaos was looming over that area. A lot of smoke was emanating from destroyed speeders, a burning ship is seen on the horizon. Other speeders and armed men were firing on the rocky path they would have used in the delivery, gunshots and a few lasers coming from that direction, as well as a gun firing constantly; a mounted Gatling Gun.

All the bodies of the already dead scouts circulated this war scene, man after man falling in sequence. He could see just over 20, 30 rebels shooting from the southwest. They had closed the main transportation route and somehow moved large rocks to protect themselves from the gunfire; Anakin Skywalker and his strange powers, he kicked. It didn't matter. Soon, 16 guns joined the 30 that Jabba's men had, all aiming at the area where the mounted machine gun was, the biggest problem in all. The reinforcements were shooting from the dune above the cave entrance, using rocks and the destroyed speeders as protection from the metal bullets of the Gatling Gun.

The fervor of conflict took any attention away from the General about his holo.

The shooting lasted another 10 minutes until a milestone happened; suddenly the mounted Gatling Gun exploded in a rapid cloud of fire and black smoke. By the next minute, the rebels were hiding more than they were shooting. It was a guaranteed victory at this point... until suddenly a distinct noise captured the General's ears. Some kind of... Mechanized respiration. Seconds after these realizations, bones cracking were heard inside the cave... A symphony of the various neck being cracked like biscuits.

.

.

.

… His mind was practically broken in two when he heard it coming closer, as well as footsteps. Even if he didn't notice being trapped in his frozen world, the men around him had also stopped firing their guns, surprised and wide-eyed, staring into the dark cave entrance.

Almost everyone knew the Rebels' trump card hated sand. Anakin Skywalker He always hated attacking in the sand; rumors about him say that he is extinguishing people from the sand just because of his hatred for sand. This kind of rumor makes Anakin's legend be told as a sort of a silly joke among friends... Because of his hatred, Anakin had built a mask capable of filtering out Tatooine's oxygen and removing all the sand sediment or something like that. It was a mark. An omen. In case you heard that mechanized breathing... It was too hard for you to live to tell the story. And no funny story about it was still funny... Only terror remains.

In the darkness, a green blade lit up, illuminating the boy a little over 150 centimeters tall. His black clothes contrasted with the darkness, and for a second the noise of gunfire behind had ceased. 25 men had stayed behind to protect the cargo, over 10 speeders at the cave's entrance... And yet there he was. Unit 1 and 2 were astonished, the men holding the shields vehemently were just a push away from pissing themselves in fear. Screams echoed as the boy began to advance in their direction, the blade alternating brightness levels around him as he walked. The shots suddenly switched from the rebels to Anakin Skywalker. Raising one hand, small stones began flying at high speed, being ripped out of the wall or picked up from the ground, all turning to dust when they collide into the lasers. If a blaster shot weren't caught in the stones, the boy would deflect it with the flickering blade. With just over twenty steps, totally terrified, the men began to run over the shields... But the rebels were already recovered and with a new mounted Gatling Gun, killing anyone without a cover. Jabba's men were between Hell and the Devil. The shield barrage also began to crumble when deflected lasers hit the men on the ground.

The general, sweating, began to shoot unstoppable toward Anakin, a cry of fear coming out of his throat and a growing regret in his heart.

Turning his blade like a fan, each and every shot was deflected and flew either to the walls or hit another man. Tired of this game quickly, Anakin brought his hand forward, the next shot coming out of the gun being frozen by the Force, bursting the barrel of the weapon and further frightening the General. Striving with dread at his gun destroyed for a second and then Anakin, he did not know what to do. The defenses were almost all down and most of the team dead. What chance did he have-

Before his thought was over, the General suddenly fell asleep. Anakin was quick to pull him to safety with the Force, his hand reaching for the holo on his belt while calmly his blue eyes watched the rest of the fallen men alive. Shutting off his breath with a touch, his still childish voice uttered.

"Stop fire, we have fulfilled the goal. Send an announcement for them to cease and desist; if they don't stop, kill them all. I'll take the General, send men here to carry the cargo. Keep informing me." As soon as he sent the message, it didn't take long for a voice to return it, female-shaped.

"Good boss! One more victory for the bill" she spoke in a really lively tone, the communication being terminated soon after. Loudly and crossing the battlefield, a song began to play, a little smile opening on Anakin's lips as the little one moved out of the cave, all the men who survived being put to sleep and, by force, hovering towards Anakin. The shields were the next to levitate, creating a floating barrage around Anakin and the eight men he carried with him. By the smoke and death of the battlefield, Anakin's black cape flew in the wind, the music is the anthem of Tatooine's Rebellion playing in the background. Any enemy who saw the green blade and the black cape in the distance simply stopped fighting and gave up at the same moment.

_"WE WON THE BATTLE! SURRENDER AND YOU WILL NOT BE EXECUTED!"_ was the message that reverberated in the middle of the song, some speeders trying to escape being shot down by the mounted machine gun. Quickly, with their hands behind their heads, some men went down the hill that surrounded the exit of the cave. Anakin stopped for a second as he watched the slaves raising their guns in cries of victory, a white flag with two circles, red and blue, waving proudly.

The two sides of the Force; the Suns of Tatooine. The symbol of the fight against the slavery of the people of Tatooine.

The only thing he wished was that his mother would be here to live this moment.

A sigh escaped Ani's bound air mask, quickly reaching where the slaves were. A reinforcement unit had just arrived, soon being commanded by Lieutenant Rimuun. As he passed the man, Anakin gave him a serious face when he spoke.

"Another victory for us, Anakin. All thanks to you." he said, a pat on the boy's back before he passed fast. They had to be quick now. Take all the cargo; take the prisoners and move the whole fleet back to Mos Sima, the Rebel base. Soon, the General he had contacted before appeared beside him, Marca. While the lieutenant had his black skin and enviable height, the girl didn't even seem to have left her 16 years old. Light brown hair, blue eyes and a scar on her chin.

"Chief, you acted perfectly today! A blow to the balls of that dirty worm." joked, a holo in her hand as she read the report of an attack that is happening right now just a few miles away. Penicillin and bacta gel cargo. Perfect for burns and lost limbs. With the lightsaber already guarded, Anakin just "high-five" with his 24-year-old General. The eight men he was carrying were left together with the other prisoners of war, not long before the cargo of weapons left the cave and changed course to Mos Sima. With his personalized speeder , Anakin went with them, the General and the Lieutenant saying goodbye while they went with part of the Unit of men to Mos Hua. The next attacks and finals, hopefully, are going to be in that region. After that, all the slaves would retreat to Mos Sima and put into practice the three plans of the Rebellion; take Mos Eisley, kill Jabba, and speak to the Senate. With all this, they could take back Tatooine and finally rid the planet of the slavery that so plagues it. It was all supposed to happen in four weeks... Tightening his saber firmly, he wished Kyp would talk to him more. In four weeks, everything would be put to the test. All his friends in the Rebellion and he would fight the thousands of Jabba's men... It would be complete madness. And everything had to happen perfectly, or they could be forced to retreat, a move that would be terrible for the Rebellion forces... If they retreated, surely Jabba would recover faster than the Rebellion and attack Mos Sima. Thousands would die... an almost unrecoverable blow.

The attack against Jabba Palace, protected by almost 5,000 men, would be followed by the takeover of Mos Eisley and her siege. Getting these two was a means to the third goal. With a heavy sigh, Anakin got lost in a Force meditation while driving his speeder through Tatooine deserts. In just over five hours they would reach Mos Sima.

... He just wanted a glass of hot Bantha milk to relax and a little time for sleep.

\- A few minutes ago, in the outskirts of Mos Espa -

"A lost padawan... here?" asked confusedly with the news of his master. On the other side of the line, Qui-Gon made a silently nod. " But how could we not feel him in the Force, master?"

"He must be suppressing his presence, even if I find it curious for a 9-year-old padawan to know such a technique. Besides, Obi-Wan, I asked about this boy for ten, twelve different people. They all know him and said how horrible he is... Few of them, actually. The others said he's like a Messiah bringing salvation to the people of Tatooine." his padawan seemed to have a laugh when he heard that.

"You want to go after him, I suppose?"

"That's right." replied Qui-Gon.

"It's still hard to believe that the same padawan lost in this dust ball is a great pilot, a bloodthirsty killer and a Messiah."

-"Believe then that he's the one who would take us for free to Mos Eisley, where we'd take our hyperdrive and get out of this 'dust ball'." Obi-wan sighed as he listened to his master's reasoning.

"And what about Queen Amidala? You know she wants to get to the Senate as soon as possible."

"Unfortunately, we have no means of communicating to the Council or the Senate; the only possible holophone to do that around here is also in Mos Eisley. We can only leave Tatooine with the hyperdrive... without it is impossible. Explain the situation to Queen Amidala for me, I'm already coming with a rebel slave. He said he'd taken us to Mos Sima, which is where this Anakin Skywalker is.

"But why is he taking you?"

"Um, I was surprised by that, too. He said that he had seen my lightsaber and it was just like Anakin Skywalker one, then he asked me if I was a Jedi. In Skywalker's words, it was for the slaves to always trust a Jedi and bring them to Mos Sima safely."

"Great... And how did you let him see your lightsaber?"

"He likely saw it by accident, after Jar Jar tried to swallow it." He let out with a slight laugh that was not funny, staring at the Gungan who, with his tongue out, seemed to enjoy the journey with the rebel slave's speeder. Artoo was saving energy in resting mode and the maid just watched Tatooine's arid landscape.

"Is that the ship, noble Jedi?" the man in the speeder asked them, pointing to a ship further ahead in the sand.

"Indeed it is. Can the speeder carry it?" the speeder was a truck version, and with a proud nod from the man, Qui-gon smiled calmly. Turning off the holo call with his apprentice, Qui-gon decided to listen to the conversation that suddenly formed with the girl next to him and the man in the speeder.

"Lucky? Why 'lucky'?" she asked, slightly confused.

"Leaving the ship like this was like a gift for the Jawas. Before you could notice anything, they had already taken half your ship with them."

"A gentleman commented with us on that a while ago; Jawas and Tusken. He said they were pests."

"Oh yes, they really were. The Jawas weren't so much since they just robbed pieces and food sometimes... The Tusken, on the other hand, are killers and kidnappers. They kidnap people just to kill them. My sister had her two daughters killed by them three years ago." The hatred in his voice was very clear, but it soon softened when a common name here in Tatooine was mentioned. "But after Anakin Skywalker began genocide in their race, very little is seen of the Tusken." Padmé seemed uncomfortable when the word 'genocide' was attributed to the deeds of a child.

"But these Tusken were sentient? Even with these heinous crimes, as thinking living beings, they should have been brought to some trial... not immediately slaughter" her frail voice was somewhat tense. Qui-gon has been watching for some time, but this maid knows a lot about democracy and always seems to go her way...

"There are no judgments when Ani and Tusken so in the same equation. It's just a square termination."

"Oh... that child sounds like a terrible person." made her final remark, apprehensive of what the future awaited her; after all, a child who was considered genocidal was the hope they have of leaving this planet. She was haunted at the thought of having someone so... bloodthirsty near her. There wasn't much more talk until they arrived on the Qui-gon ship. Queen Amidala had accepted the terms, no matter how impatient she grew. Again, her people needed a lot of help-

However, just as the speeder began to pull the ship and Qui-gon and Obi-wan were meditating, a disturbance in the Force alerted them. Too far away, too weak... But it was clearly the presence of the dark side of the Force... Possibly a Sith.

Qui-gon couldn't stop thinking about how many surprises this planet had... But there was no hurry; no reason to have it. This Sith has already felt Qui-gon and Obi-wan; he won't get close until he has the best situation to attack, the high ground. Touching his tense apprentice on the shoulder, Qui-gon pronounced.

"Calm down. All in your time, Obi-wan."

"But... It's the Dark Side of the Force, master! A Sith!"

"Yes, a Sith. But there's nothing to do for now... Meditate and keep ready to defend Queen Amidala." Closing his eyes and snorting, Obi-wan gradually calmed down, grabbing the light side along with his master.

\- 5 hours later -

The trip was really quiet. No attacks, no distractions, just a stop to refuel the soldiers and the speeders. With Tatooine's suns descending on the horizon, the grandiose settlement of Mos Sima appeared in their vision. An area entirely made of rock on that is, actually, an entire mountain, several houses were made on it. Thousands of houses. Around it, a multitude of areas such as hangars, rock roads and towers were made, to effectively protect the civil area where the soldiers and their families, as well as the moisture farms that produced the necessary water around the big rocky mountain, massive and its summit almost reaching the skies. Everything was centered around the great mountain and even entered inside it; in case of bombing attacks, everyone had easy access to the inside of the mountain, which was a natural fortress against collapse because it was essentially a single large rock. Mos Sima had a nickname of "Monolith" because of that. With a round of applause from the guards of the towers of the great walls, the large cargo of weapons entered the reinforced metal gates of the city surrounding the mountain. Previously a resort for rich slave owners and tourists to enjoy the time, Mos Sima was now the hope for a good life of any slave. It was even ironic, Anakin found.

The soldiers moved from here to there, carrying things or just standing by. All of them. Everyone took a second to shout some praise at the Prague Terminator fleet. Slap a palm and then they'd get back to work. Everything was accelerated over the last month. The Great-War Year was finally coming to a clear end on the horizon. Everyone had to make their contributions and not stop working for a second to make the dream of Rebellion come true.

At the top of each house, the flag of the Rebellion waved in the wind, showing that the slaves did have pride and that they would fight for their lives and rights. Soon, all the speeders were parked inside a specific shed, guided to a hangar more empty than the others. Anakin was the first to leave his speeder, watching as a man came in his direction, a sincere smile on his face. Jimba, a slave like everyone else here. He manages practically all the stock of hand weapons in the sheds. With a wave of his hand, he stopped walking as soon as he stood in front of little Ani who, with a few clicks to his side, turned off his mask, making it fall down to rest on his neck.

"I heard from the director that his mission was successful. The results are clear... Hell, look how many high-powered blasters" One shot of them could go through 6 cells per square inch in protective shields."

"I don't use those kinds of weapons, but they look like good numbers." Even if Ani was a marvelous mechanic and very intuitive in every little thing, firearms were never his main passion; the lightsaber and the Force make him feel much more Jedi than anything else.

"They certainly are... Now, there's some news for you." he commented, pulling a holo. In a slight sigh, Anakin began to walk through the shed, the man following him. These 'news' always ended up being more chores for him. Not that he doesn't like to support everything that rebellion is possible, but he also slowly gets tired after using the Force so much. Despite being the Chosen One of the Force, his small body still snatched him a lot by performing many functions-such as breaking 25 necks simultaneously. That's how he managed to sneak up on Jabba's men earlier today, after destroying the ten speeders by making them collide with each other. "The first is that tonight there will be a sandstorm, so help yourself and sleep with the mask. You hate sand, don't you? 'It's coarse, rough, irritating and it gets everywhere.'" joked, a laugh slipping between his lips.

"You'll never forget..."

"Never. I'm sorry Ani, but you talking in your sleep is just so sweet; all the girls here in the base adore you 'cause of your habit of sleeping in the first bench you see." He let go again, making the child look upon him, a little irritated with everything. Noticing that and not wanting the kid to kick his knee, he said "Okay, I'll stop. The real news is something you'll be really interested in; a Jedi has just arrived here in Mos Sima asking for you." the surprise in the child's blue eyes was immediate, and all the jokes dismissed in the air.

"A Jedi?!"

"Two, actually."

"Two Jedi?! And... they came to help us?! Perhaps contact us with the Senate?" he asked, really surprised by the news, even amazed.

"That's what the leaders have been asking since their arrival. They, however, have refused to speak to anyone but you. One of them has demonstrated the same power that you have, the thing with of levitating other... things." He waved his arms and made some noises with his mouth as if he wanted to represent the Force, but clearly failing. Ani, however, did not have time to comment on this, his mind overloading itself with the possibilities that two Jedis could open for the war at the end of the month... There were so many! And the emotion didn't take long to grow either. With two Jedis at his side, Jabba would never have a chance to win the war. The Side of Light in the Force shone powerfully on Anakin, his feelings of happiness and the thrill of a really good chance of victory clouded his mind, destroying the old eager feelings for the events of the day of the war.

The Force danced like a den around Anakin.

"And where are they, therefore? I want to see them immediately." demanded Anakin.

"Since they wanted to talk to you, the Director let them stay in your quarters. They brought a few more people, so the extra rooms will be very useful, I'd say." he commented, joking about the fact that Anakin never liked having such a big apartment. It was literally 20 different rooms for a 9-year-old child. Director Vimgu said it was good to maintain an image; the image that Anakin Skywalker was a big and valuable man. Still, it barely mattered to the boy now. Smiling cheerfully, his black cape flew in the air and the lightsaber swayed on the belt hook, his emotion barely contained. The rebels around him greeted him and, as such, Anakin returned each greeting with a sweet smile, continuing to run soon after, the excitement to meet the Jedis only increasing more and more. It was a surprise to many of the rebels who saw the blonde ball of happiness running between them.

Anakin was never the happiest of all... On the contrary, his countenance was either very serious or very sad most of the time. Scarce were his smiles.

Seeing him running animated and smiling like an ordinary child warmed the heart of the rebels.

With a little more than 5 minutes of running and a few good throws of stone stairs later, the blond finally arrived in his quarters... With his hand on the handle, unwittingly, he let the Force go first and checked the attendances inside his room, a habit to avoid being caught by Bounty Hunters or infiltrators. Inside, he felt eight living presences and a robotic presence. He never really learned how to identify the Force, so he didn't feel who the Jedis were there... Sighing heavily, he would only find out when he met them. Opening the door, the large living room carved in stone was made, the light of Tatooine's twin sunset passing through the windows... But those things were just details. His eyes instantly caught on the girl sitting on the sofa, reading one of his holo books. Holo books were a diversion that little Ani loved to do in his little free time along with meditation and saber training.

Still... Her pure heavenly beauty caught his eyes the way no woman has before. The suns illuminated her perfectly as if she were a figure descending from heaven to bless him with good luck. Everything about her was beautiful. Her posture sitting on the sofa was strong and trained as if she were a princess sitting on her throne, her chocolate eyes moving quietly between words, a shine like no other... And what about her hair? Her hair reflected the light and shone like pure gold. The smell she emanated through the Force made him intoxicated and lured him endlessly. The girl carried perfect traits in each and every apparent condition... The most beautiful person in the whole universe. She was like a unique being... like a...

"Are..." the word caught the girl's attention, slightly scared turning to face Ani in the eyes. Faced with that gesture, she didn't say anything but just watched him there, standing still. Swallowing dry, Anakin completed himself. "Are you an... angel?"

"An angel?" Her voice was perfect. The light side was never as strong inside Anakin as it was now, his aura assimilating into a lighthouse so blinding that it was.

"Yes, an angel... the most beautiful creatures in the galaxy."

"Ah... I don't think I am." she laughed at the little comment, and Ani could only have a stronger brighter adorning his eyes, his cheeks stained red. Her laughter sounded like a chorus of voices, a symphony too beautiful to be heard by someone like him.

"Are you sure? I've never seen anyone as beautiful as you! And your voice is so beautiful, too..."Ani's childlike ignorance kept him from seeing through Padmé's little laughter, her thesis that people were too extremist coming back from the depths of her mind. It wasn't hard to assume that this child was Anakin Skywalker, the 'the demon with no fear'... Does such a cruel executioner come to girls asking if they are angels? Internally, Padmé danced to her conclusions that, maybe, all the people who said scary things about that kid were wrong.

"Yes, I'm sure... Anakin Skywalker?"

"Yes-It's me" still with a blush on his cheeks, Anakin closed the door behind him, walking to the sofa and, looking at his feet, sitting a little far from it. It was stamped on his face how embarrassed he was. Padmé was already opening his mouth to say something, but a male voice spoke first.

"Hearing from his own mouth is always a satisfaction." Qui-gon spoke, appearing in one of the three hallways in the room. Anakin stared at him, his mouth opening in the shape of an "o".

"A... A Jedi!" pointed to Qui-gon and changed his gaze quickly between Padmé and the Jedi. Unable to stop her laugh, Padmé put her hand in her mouth, trying to smother it. That kid? You're telling me that this little boy sitting six inches away from her is Tatooine's most bloodthirsty, mad and destructive being? Now, all the words against Anakin she heard sounded like jokes... Qui-gon, on the other hand, just had a slight laugh, no big deal.

"Yes, a Jedi I am." played the eldest, approaching the couch in quiet footsteps. Stopping next to Anakin, he saw when the little one's hand advanced towards him, touching his clothes... And his mouth opening only further.

"It wasn't a dream..." he said obnoxiously, making Padmé have a hard time trying to not laugh.

"And that's a good thing, I should say. You don't look like a dream either, Anakin Skywalker." the idea that the boy was a lost padawan slowly vanished into Qui-gon's head. His pure reactions showed this easily, as long as his words... What changed, though, was when the boy turned into such a bright spot on the Force, five to six minutes ago. It was such a brute power, so impossibly giant. Neither Grand Master Yoda nor Master Windu could ever have such an aptitude for the Light as great as Anakin Skywalker. And it reminds him of the ancient prophecy of the Chosen One... A being so strong in the Force, that he will be the one who will balance the Dark Side and the Light Side. If Anakin was this endless well of power, greater than any master... What would deny that he might really be the One?

Qui-gon wanted to have a good, long talk with this Skywalker boy.

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**Gotta love the power of the horizontal line! The idea of the Slave Rebellion is from one of my daydreamings. Is just seems like a good plot Anakin becoming strong as a kid for his desire of bringing liberty to the slaves.**

**tip of the day; do not eat the brown sand. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi! Sorry, it took so long, that chapter was really big and took longer to be done. Still, here it is.**

**Answering the reviews!**

**Ichigo Urahara Shihoin (chap 1, 2 and 3)**, here's the new chapter! Exactly, she's only 14 for now, so he doesn't fully understand everything around her and has a biased mind.

**Death Fury (chap 3)**, especially made for you, sir!

**CosyRox (chap 3)**, yeah... About Obi-wan. He's pissed off, that's for sure.

* * *

Padmé felt incredibly good about herself now. In the few minutes she talked to this child, no moment passed without her feeling a few tons less on her back. Other people's bad words, which addressed Anakin Skywalker like a demon, were mocked like lies with no feet or head. Yes, there was still sadness in the knowledge that the boy was a warrior and killed on the battlefield, but he was still completely different from the title of unbridled butcher… More like a man who only fights to continue living. A fit of watery anger against the Rebellion arose in her mind, imagining the lies they spread so that the child would be at their mercy. At this moment, the supposed Queen Amidala was talking to the man named Vimgu, the Director of this military base, talking about democracy and the Intergalactic Senate. She had stood by the Queen's side for only a few minutes until, when the conversations became details of how much blood was spilled, Padmé had decided to go out and take a breath. Later she and her maids would talk about Tatooine and the Rebellion. It was inspiring to know that the slaves were fighting injustice and cruelty, but it was also harsh to know that they would rather raise their weapons than their voices.

Shaking her head with grace, Padmé watched Anakin and Qui-gon talk vehemently, a smile rising up in the face as she watched a child so wounded by war smile and simply act like a real little boy.

"So not every Jedi is a master?"

"Yes, Indeed. First, you begin as a youngling; then, you are adopted by a Jedi and become a padawan. When that Jedi sees that you're ready, you become a Jedi knight. Finally, after a long time, the Council decides whether you become a master or not. There is one last position, but only Yoda has held it for the past 900 years. The rank of Grand Master Jedi." The oldest observed with curiosity when Yoda's name caused a reaction in Anakin, his eyes opening a little more.

"Yoda?... Kyp told me that this lightsaber was Master Yoda's." He pulled his lightsaber from his waist, a surprised look born on Qui-gon. In fact, during one of the fights against the Confederation, Master Yoda had his saber destroyed and sent for repairs to a nearby planet. The shipment must have exploded and the saber fell here. There seemed no luck, but fate acted so that Anakin would find the lightsaber, Qui-gon noticed vaguely. And again, Kyp was quoted. The crystal that taught him about the Force. Yes, it was common for Jedi to communicate with their Kyber crystals... But to the point where the crystal taught him how to meditate and use the Force? That was totally new. That conversation was getting to a point where he wanted privacy. His eyes moved to the maid.

"I don't like to rush things, Anakin, but my padawan and I have been using your meditation room since we arrived. Would you like to meet him?" he asked as he got up, the Jedi Master's pose being rigid and natural, which made the little boy look at him with palpable admiration.  
"Of course!" Excited, he got up behind Qui-gon, passing in front with quick steps and almost entering the corridor that would take him to the Meditation Room. Stopping in his final strides, he turned to the chocolaty-haired girl. Anakin moistened his lips with a certain uncertainty, which did not go unnoticed by the sharp eyes of the Jedi master. Anakin Skywalker appeared to be working with some kind of haste to cling to people. He barely knows Qui-gon, and in the Force, he exhales a more than endless trust in the Jedi master. He didn't want to be quick in drawing conclusions, so he would watch a little more. "You want to come with us?" he asked the girl. She was about to open her mouth to agree, but her democrat nerves made her face Qui-gon first. His face was calm, and a swing of his chin denied it. Padmé didn't feel good about being denied the details of the whole Jedi and Force conversation, but she didn't want to get on the bad side of the Jedi master either. With a sigh and a wink to recover, she put the holo on the table, already off.

"Sorry, Anakin. But I have to get back to my master, Queen Amidala." She made a bow, placing herself on the second path of the corridor and, respectively, in the direction of the staircase to the chambers. Anakin seemed a bit shaken by that. He didn't want to get away from that pretty girl... But it was her duty, so stopping her sounded selfish, and his mother made him promise that when he met a pretty girl, he would never be mean to her.

"All right... Can you at least tell me your name?" the question came with a certain desperation. He didn't want to let her go entirely, so having a little piece of her, the name, would satisfy him on a low level. His mind clouded with raw happiness when she smiled majestically, her hand in the corridor of the stairs. Her words were brief, and yet they hit his heart with a blow.

"My name is Padmé. Have a nice day, Anakin." In one last maid's measure, she left for the upstairs. Padmé... Like straw fire, that name burned in the boy and left a powerful mark. Along with her angelic appearance, her name would never leave his mind. Taken from her thoughts by force, a hand rested gently on Ani's shoulder.

"I feel in the Force that my apprentice is getting more and more impatient with my delay. He is also eager to meet you, Anakin. Shall we go?" he questioned calmly, like everything he did. Anakin saw and admired Qui-gon since the first moment he realized the master. He was calm and rational like what he expected of a peace warrior. He could not feel the Force within Qui-gon, but he had a feeling that the light side was flowing into him in a powerful way. With a quick swing of his head, Anakin observed one last time the ladder Padmé had climbed, still feeling her upstairs, along with other varied presences. From there, he and Qui-gon walked towards his specialized meditation room, where Anakin not only meditated and commune with the Force but also trained his techniques with the lightsaber. Because of lack of need, he created a fighting style that involved only swinging the lightsaber towards some living being and leaving the rest to the Force, so his level of skill as a warrior was minimal. Aside from these thoughts and the feeling of shame of being in the presence of someone who probably knows thousands of techniques and combinations to fight perfectly with a lightsaber, both took just over a few seconds to reach the room—instantly feeling the presence of this 'padawan' inside.

The door was opened, revealing his room itself. Previously a gym, the place is huge. The polished and strong stone that made the walls and the floor were covered by the fragile light that came from the huge window facing the Moisture Farms inside Mos Sima's territory. The enormous space was empty, with nothing but a thick and resistant carpet on the floor. On this rug, sitting in a meditation pose, the young man had light, redder hair, a cascade braid next to his head. In front of him, a levitating lightsaber. Even though Anakin could not feel the Force, only the sight of the other Jedi created the idea that the man is extremely strong. Like Qui-gon, Anakin respected the padawan on the very first moment he saw him.

"Master. I suppose this is Anakin Skywalker." commented from where he meditated, not opening his eyes or moving his body. In stillness, Qui-gon got down on his knees beside his apprentice, putting his saber on the floor... The moment his eyes closed and a breath left his nostrils, the saber was already levitating high, above the level of his head.

"Come, Anakin. Meditate with us." Ignoring his apprentice's question, Qui-gon grabbed the light side hard, without any difficulty. Anakin faced the backs of the two Jedi with caution, a little confused and slightly fearful. In front of these two who have been training all their lives in the Force, how would he behave? With an inert desire to impress them and a determination to fight fear, Anakin walked to the other side of Qui-gon, the rug being large enough in width for all three to stand on it, with considerable space between each. Taking his own saber and resting it on the floor in front of him, Anakin entered the position of meditation... And before he closed his eyes, he pondered. Which side should he show the two Jedi? The Dark One, or the Light One? Anakin was extremely strong with the dark side when in battle. His power brought everyone to their knees and easily made him the center of everything. On the other hand, the Light was subtle and made meditation really easier and more pleasurable, exhaling a power that made his mind straighten up and more rational thoughts reach him easily. Cutting off his thought, however, the soft words of Qui-gon came into Ani's ears.

"I feel the doubt in your heart, Anakin. What is it?" The master asked with his eyes still closed, but Anakin has not found the right way to answer it. He knew that if he did, he would be ashamed in front of the master and the padawan. Standing still for another second and feeling growing anxiety in his chest, Anakin decided, therefore, that he would use both sides at the same time. He has tried this before and, frankly, it is incredibly stressful and torments him like an inner, unstoppable struggle... But by his will to impress the Jedi, he spread his mind and, strongly, he started grabbing the Light side, his saber rising slowly until it was flying a little above the boy's chin level. The moment was now... To hold on to both sides, Anakin had to create a whirlwind within himself. It was like trying to merge oil and water. Both sides met and fought each other, trying to nurture themselves of Anakin more and more. Putting on collars was an extreme difficulty. Obi-wan, the moment he felt that spark on the dark side, moved his hand to hold his saber... But strongly, his master held his wrist. With his eyes open and incredulous, Obi-wan observed Qui-gon's face... He had also become frightened when the dark side rose inside of Anakin.

... Obi-wan saw his master shaking his head negatively, his breath struggling to compass itself. Raising his own eyes, the padawan stared at the boy with an inner confusion; the uncomfortable face he had was enough to say he was in pain, in hardship. Contrary to this, by taking a deep breath and slowly letting go of his apprentice's hand, Qui-gon meditated again.

Obi-wan felt sick for the master, but swallowed dry, turning to look at the now black sky of Tatooine, no longer being able to meditate. The dark side of the Force was inches away from where he was... If he would just take off his lightsaber and rip the head off of this... This pathetic form of life. He'd kill a sith. But his master stopped him, and that left Obi-wan with a tremendous fuzz. The urge to vomit was reaching him when suddenly the Dark Side inside Anakin began to sway with the Light Side. They fought frantically to take his place... But the child struggled to tame both sides, who were mad as wild dogs in his mind. Sweating cold, the boy stayed in this inner struggle for almost two, three minutes... until the moment that, finally, both sides were balanced inside him. That notion angered Obi-wan, confused him. How both sides of light and darkness coexisted inside him?! The boy was an abomination of nature. Something heretical to the Jedi code. He... He must die.

The silence was filled with pure tension in that meditation room. Qui-gon had a strong bond with the Light; Anakin hung between the two sides and... Obi-wan was disturbed to his core by the child being allowed to live by his master.

"Forgive me, master Qui-gon... Balancing both sides is very difficult." Anakin let go with dizziness, wiping the sweat from his forehead. The balance between the sides lasted only a moment and the next, Anakin let them go. The Light Side now dominated him, since he was the most relaxing during meditation.

"I wouldn't say difficult, Anakin... It's unique. For you are the Chosen One of the Force." your master's words scared Obi-wan.

"You're saying that this Sith filth is-"

"Obi-wan!" he shouted vehemently, a look of frigid rage in the direction of the apprentice. The same anger dissipated as he came from his next words. "Keep your cool and listen."

"But master!"

"Listen." He repeated, his eyes still deep in Obi-wan's. Staring at them and giving a quick look into Anakin's blue eyes, Obi-wan bowed his head and swallowed some wall of saliva that had been gathering in his mouth since the Dark Side emerged from the boy. "Forgive Obi-wan. For us Jedi, the Dark Side is the promise of destruction and death, the path that no one dares to follow because it only leads to a future of disgrace and pain. A path no normal force-sensitive can walk away... And there is no doubt, Anakin... You would be led down that same path if you were not the Chosen One. Not only the Light is powerful but the Darkness too. You are balanced on both sides." Qui-gon spoke with slight stupefaction in your voice.

Quiet and really scared by everything they said, Anakin was still keeping his mind at the moment that Obi-wan called him filth. The look of contempt in the Jedi's eyes made him retreat, confused that he had done something wrong and clearly hurt the boy. He never expected to be called that by a Jedi. Master Qui-gon's words calmed him, but not enough. He knew he was the Chosen One of the Force, but he never knew that the Jedi abhorred the Dark Side in this way. Kyp told him they didn't use the dark side, but the crystal never told him he would be hated instantly just for using the Dark Side... Anakin felt betrayed by the crystal which, for a long time, was the only entity he trusted. Hate and anger murmured silently in his mind as he sneered a gaze filled with sorrow at the lightsaber.

"I'm sorry... I never knew the Dark Side was so dangerous." he commented with difficulty, the shame once again coming back to him, but this time with renewed strength. Not only had he made one of the Jedi scream and curse at him, but he had also lived two years using a power that has a reputation for destroying those who use it. Not just his misery, but his hatred also started to soar. "I thought... that I had to use the side that best fitted the situation in front of me..."

"And that led you to go full genocidal in several communities?!" Obi-wan's voice suddenly cut through the room, a cold Qui-gon look coming towards him, but the padawan didn't even care. "You lie, Sithspawn! We felt a Dark Side presence on this planet earlier; it was you, wasn't it? Running and killing people like a crazy animal with fire in our eyes!"

"Obi-wan, stop right now!" Qui-gon's hand fell on the apprentice's shoulder, the eldest's face staring the child in fear at Obi-wan's words.

"No, master! Can't you see, you're blind to the code?! That child is a sithspawn! He can corrupt our minds with his powers if we do nothing against him! It is our duty as Jedi to execute any Dark Side presence! He's a monster, a bloodthirsty killer and probably kills for no reason but to feed the lust within his mind!"

"Stop it right now! It's different, Obi-wan! He is the Chosen One of the Force! There's a sense behind it. There's something else we're not seeing. And calm down, resume your composture. You're stronger than the mindless man you're portraying now." tried to calm him down with the cold, calculated words and, in a way, it worked. Again the silence returned to the room, Obi-wan casting one last look at the blond child... His eyes were filled with tears, fear radiated from him in the Force. He trembled like a scared rat and tried to hide his eyes, his de difficult not to come out of his mouth.

He trembled like a scared rat and tried to hide his eyes, his hard sorrows coming out of his mouth.

"Sorry, I didn't know! Kyp told me that if I gave my feelings to the side who feeds fro it, I'd be strong... And... I had to save my mother! I... I didn't want to run away, I didn't want to just let her die... And I was in so much pain, so much fear... And I felt so desperate. I just handed everything over to the Dark Side and went mad! I killed everything in my way just for the sake of my mother! I'm so, so sorry!" Screaming against the tears that came out of his eyes without stopping, with palpable fear and shame of his actions that hit the ceiling, Anakin tried to shrink even more than he already was. Disgust reflected in Obi-wan's eyes. "And then... I couldn't stop... I always wanted to kill more of the Tusken... I felt so much hatred for what they did to me, my mother and other people... And they had so much food too! No slave in Tatooine had so much food, but the Tusken... the killers and rapists... they had so much! I killed so many women because of the Dark Side and I didn't know it! So many children, so many babies... I didn't know..." his tears were frantic and hiccups began to run down the child's throat who, with all his might, tried to make the Jedi he admired so much not hate him. Obi-wan's words were cutting like a hot knife into his skin.

"It's a trick, master... It's all a trick..." rising abruptly, Obi-wan felt an intense urge to turn on his lightsaber and put the child out of his misery. He would be doing him a favor and prevent him from falling totally into the Dark Side. No one who went to the Dark Side could come back from it, he knows very well that when he had the chance, this child would let himself be dominated by the darkness... Only for some time, it consumes the boy completely and never let him return. That was his destiny and anyone but his master could see it. He needs to kill Anakin!

"It is not, Obi-wan. Think of his words; think of what is happening on this planet. There is a Revolution against slavery, and this little boy, who had his mother killed by monsters and lived the life of a slave, is leading it. There is too much hatred, too much pain, and several occasions where the Dark Side could have dominated him, but he did not. Anakin is the Chosen One and he is different from all of us. He is the only one who can go between the Dark Side and the Light Side without getting lost." spoke loudly, but calmly. Sitting between his apprentice and the child, Qui-gon returned to his meditation in this midst everything, one hand caressing the small boy's back. To Obi-wan's dismay, his master was right. No Sith will ever, ever have enough compassion to create a Rebellion. He heard the accounts of the few people around here and how happy they were to talk about this child, how hard he worked to help and how incredible he was. There were moments when he even had an attraction of admiration for this boy... But then he discovered that the boy is a sithspawn. That the dark side runs in his veins next to the blood. That he is corrupt, unholy. Anakin was an antithesis and it disturbed all of Obi-wan's beliefs in the Jedi code, the disturbance creating disgust and hatred for the boy.

Sighing heavily, he sat on the carpet once again, closing his eyes and still could not meditate properly.

"It's all right, Anakin. Obi-wan is a strong believer in the Jedi code, the same one who hates anything on the dark side with all its might. But I know you're special—that you're different from the others... I wanted to offer you that when we leave this planet, you come with us and stand before the Jedi Council, Anakin." the words caused a shock in Anakin, but they caused an emotional earthquake in Obi-wan. A wave of shivers washed the padawan's entire body, his eyes caught in the face of his master.

"But that... is treason! You will be disbarred if you do this, master!"

"I know the consequences, but I don't believe they'll be put into practice. However, we'll only talk about it when we're back in Coruscant." Qui-gon raised his hand preventing any word from coming out of Obi-wan's mouth. "I am clear in the Force that this is the right decision, my padawan." his last comment made the youngest lower his head, a long breath would not calm him at that moment. Obi-wan had everything he could against taking that... monstrous thing before the Council. He was the very depravity of everything that was most sacred in the Force, needed to be executed before he could grow up and develop such hatred. However, now that he was trying to calm down, a flea had appeared behind his ear; why would his master take the child in front of the Council, knowing that he would be rejected outright?... With one flawed thud, Obi-wan's head rose slightly... What if they didn't reject the child, believing he was the Chosen One? Would they allow a sithspawn to become a Jedi? No, they certainly wouldn't... Would they?

Shutting his mouth for good, Obi-wan bowed his head and, trembling slightly over his head full of doubt, he began to meditate. Finding the side of light was difficult and he had to concentrate hard enough to keep the saber afloat. As the redhead thought, Qui-gon moved his eyes to Anakin's little bluish eyes, reddened by the tears that would soon descend into the corners... Being as sincere as he could, Qui-gon smiled at the little child.

" "I'll... I'll be able to be a Jedi?

"Only if you can suppress the dark side within you, Anakin. You'll have to fight yourself and win the part that tries to consume your soul, for that's exactly what the Dark Side does... Think of the Force as carrying a snowball on a big, snowy mountain. On the Light Side, you have to drag the ball from the foot to the top, just with your effort and dedication, gaining a unique strength on the way to the summit, even if the journey becomes more and more difficult with time. On the Dark Side, you roll the ball from the top to the foot. It's easy, it's fast and without you noticing it, the ball grows and grows without stopping... Until a moment comes when it's stronger and bigger than you, you will lose control and be consumed by the huge snowball." the words of wisdom just brought a new load of shame to Anakin. Before the master at your side, Anakin felt smaller and smaller. Insignificant. Most of the things he did were worthwhile and only contributed to him becoming someone worse. He did save thousands of lives from slavery, but how many were wiped out in perspective? Holding hands, his eyes met those of Qui-gon.

"I... I will destroy the dark side in me, Master Qui-gon. I will never let him dominate me again, I will never enjoy him again."

"No, Anakin. The Dark Side is part of you now, killing it is impossible. You'll have to tame him and never let it show that you have him. Bottling all your feelings is the worst you can do when the Dark Side is so strong within you. As long as you seek balance, both sides will have to be put to use. However, no one but the three of us can know that, do you understand?" Obi-wan raised one of his eyebrows when he heard that. Was his master thinking of lying before the Jedi Council? "Until we return to Coruscant, the home of the Jedi Temple, I will teach you how to suppress your total presence in the Force, Anakin. You can never, ever, let a lint shine on the dark side while with other Jedis around." he concluded, a finger lifting in front of his face to emphasize what he was saying.

"Yes! I will try my best to suppress everything, Master Qui-gon." said determined, the fire flashing in Anakin's eyes. The shame and misery of before was still strong in him, but this new insight, that he could become a Jedi in exchange for never using the Dark Side near others, brought those old memories of him speaking to his mother that he would become a Jedi back. The same vivid animation, the same will to fight for what was right. The extensive will to never let people like Jabba get away with their crimes. Everything was there and was being fed with strength on the Light Side.

"It's good to see you put your heart into it, Anakin. With your raw power in the Force and how sentimental you are, I wouldn't doubt they'd try to control you, the Sith." Qui-gon's mind returned to the Sith that he and Obi-wan felt earlier that day; it wasn't Anakin for it was totally different... Malice was different. A desire for extreme power and total selfishness. Anakin's was a consumed pain and an incinerating thirst for blood. Calmer, but not liking his master's ideas at all, Obi-wan spoke up.

"Like the one we felt earlier, right?"

"Is there a Sith here in Tatooine?..." he asked exasperated by the news. Obi-wan faced him with mockery and disappointment. Deep down, he hoped this boy would know something about this Sith.

"There is. And he is a powerful one. I think he just let us feel him to warn us, to scare us... A Sith mind trick to destabilize his opponent. I will also teach you how to feel other beings on the Force, Anakin." With his fist, Anakin wiped his eyes and then pulled a good amount of air, trying to normalize his breathing after all those hiccups before. The affection Qui-gon had shown him on his back had helped him calm down from Obi-wan's cruel and true words. And then, with the three of them meditating in that room, time began to pass. The tension was still great between Obi-wan and Anakin, and they barely spoke during the whole meditation process. Later, Obi-wan was dispersed from the room, where Anakin began his training with Qui-gon. By the next day, both Queen Amidala and Obi-wan and Qui-gon were already in the midst of the Rebellion and their future plans. It was a great encouragement for the Rebels to know that there was a Senator supporting them in their cause, and a grand celebration would have been made if they had not been out of time. The attacks on Mos Hua were happening for three days now and this was the final and most important day. The Rebellion spent an immeasurable amount of resources to get to that point... The last attack would be to destroy the settlement with more men and battle droids than Hutt had, Mos Diin. After that attack, there was nothing left to do; either they would attack or the soldiers would starve to death after two weeks.

With the attack on Mos Diin, the entire army would be mobilized and divided. A majority of the men would march under the command of the director and the generals in Mos Eisley's direction. A flank of almost 20,000 men, six hundred speeders and 14 All Terrain Tanks threatening to attack the city would create great tension and, clearly, Jabba would have to do something. Unable to flee the planet by the only spaceport, it would be the moment that Jabba's palace would be attacked. A massive airstrike. The vast majority of the bombs would be dropped and shatter all the palace's shields. A small ground unit of just over 500 people would be dispatched with Jabba's rapid execution mission. Chaos would cause his army to split up and create breaches, infiltrate those breaches, find him and execute him like the disgraceful worm that he was. All this with the purpose to destabilize the army without command, so the only alternative was to flee to Mos Eisley, the city just a few miles from Jabba Palace. Meeting with the flank of 20,000 slaves, they would either surrender or suffer in a bloody battle.

It's a plan with a huge chance of failure. If the siege fails and tension erupts in war, the 14 hours between the soldiers and the Aircraft Unit could cause the rebels to retreat. Even if they killed Jabba, his army could flee and reorganize itself quickly, launching campaign after campaign to end the Rebels. They were walking on thin ice and any mistake or bad luck would clear any chance of victory from existence. Anakin knew that, even more now. With a heavy sigh, he watched the white clouds from Tatooine's skies vanish in front of the glass panel of the ship he was flying, an air mask in his mouth and an orange suit helping him cope with Tatooine's extremely warm atmospheric pressure.

He and eleven other pilots were flying cone formation through the skies of Tatooine, Anakin in the beak. Nine ships were carrying bomb warheads; 150 in all. The three front and lightest ships were for cover while the other nine ships would drop bombs on Mos Diin. As much as Mos Diin would useful to the Rebellion there, they had no luxury of wasting time mastering and managing everything soon after; now, during the "Final Attack," as the mission was called, all the rest of the army and many, many tons of cargo were being mobilized in the northern settlements. The march would walk 200,000 miles to Mos Eisley, while Anakin would gather all the men who were waiting for him in Mos Sima to, with a fleet of ships, move practically around Tatooine. They would have to go unnoticed by the entire Jabba team and would not finish touring Tatooine until 14 hours after the Slave army arrived at Mos Eisley. As mentioned before, everything had to work. Both on the radar and on the horizon, Anakin had a vision of Mos Diin's camp.

Being quick to get his communicator on, he began to give commands to his troops.

"Alpha speaking! Quebec, Oscar, we're going down for 15 seconds. Foxtrot, take the lead and up 200 feet. Slow down and only go down after the third bomb veil." his childish voice has reached the ears of the other two. Both ships, along with Anakin, maneuvered in the air downwards as they stood to the side, the other nine, as ordered, lifting the ship's beaks. Qui-gon and Obi-wan followed him down, the laser weapons being those of medium power that arrived at the weapons attack three days ago. Four machine guns were attached to the lower part of the ships.

"Oscar speaking, how long before they spot us?"

"Alpha speaking... 10 seconds and we're on their scanners-stick to the plan!" The plan was simple; start with the machine guns and alert everyone. Destroy, mostly warehouses and speeders. When you're 100 meters off the ground, drop the bombs and take altitude. In the second and third attacks, use the lasers and attack specific targets. Quebec and Alpha attack the laser weapons of superpower and speeders trying to escape, Oscar destroys the command towers and radio. All timed and planned. In the third, the ships of Jabba's soldiers would pursue and they would retreat, taking them with them. In the face of that, the mass bombardment would begin. All the bombs would massacre the enemy's defenses instantly. After that, the Alpha, Oscar, and Quebec division would battle areas the remaining aircraft.

"Quebec speaking, try not to kill yourselves!"

"Oscar—that's very annoying—speaking, I'll give you that!"

"Alpha speaking, it's part of the military alphabet, it's cool to talk that way... We're on the radar!" shouted Anakin, moving the main lever of his left hand forward, the Force made him feel an unusual spike of despair inside the military base. The weapons were turning in their directions quickly. With the lever pressed and shaking, the exposed machine guns of the ship began to spin, taking power. Separating in the air, the three force-sensitive men started an air gunfight. The bullets cut through the air and screams began to erupt inside the base, a loud siren being quick to sound. With a trained aim, Anakin maneuvered to start dodging the lasers, tilting the ship's beak and spinning its wings from the center of gravity. Explosions began at Obi-wan and Qui-gon shots, all three ships descending faster and faster towards the ground. "We are entering the 100-meter mark! Five more seconds!" Anakin shouted on the communicator, feeling the ship tremble lightly as it was hit by high-powered lasers. The wing shield had melted almost 12 millimeters and he felt the hair on his neck rising and his heart racing faster. Flying low enough, gates were opened as soon as they passed under the base, skillfully diverting against the lasers... The bombs dropped moments later, much larger explosions appearing and much fear in the Force being portrayed. The first attack was a success, time for the second!

As planned, the ships of Jabba's soldiers were preparing to go up; before this happened, the three ships switched from metallic ammunition machine guns to medium power blasters.

The high spin and the totally straight spout made the entire metal body of the plane go against inertia, starting a fast free-fall. While Qui-gon trained Anakin with the Force, Anakin taught them how to fly for the last few days. They were not perfect and he could clearly see the damage to the ships that they, even being experienced pilots, had. The difference between open space fighting and closed ground fighting was very great, he assumed. On the panel, everyone clicked buttons and didn't even need to speak, a Morse code ringing in their ears; everyone was fine and ready for the next attack.

"Alpha speaking, 5 seconds to laser attack!" With Ani's words, the ships fell in a spinning fall, deviating from what they could from the lasers. In that time, Obi-wan separated from the team, falling towards the base while the other two followed more towards the surroundings. With five seconds gone, the red and purple shots from the automatic laser cannons began, immediately exploding whatever they hit. The speeders that tried to escape could not and were being blown up, as well as the weapons shields that tried to destroy their ships. Receiving an update and giving it just enough time of doubt, Anakin felt in the Force when Obi-wan's ship suffered considerable damage, black smoke erupting from where the laser missile had hit it.

"Oscar down!" Obi-wan shouted at the communicator, trying, but without success, to maintain control of the command panel. The steering wheel went crazy, everything was flashing around him and the panel showing the status of his ship was a reddish madness. "I'm gonna have to make some changes!" - yelled again at the confusion of Qui-gon and Anakin. Being quick to pull a gas mask, by pushing the button on his ship's hatch, Obi-wan ejected from it at the same time as all the bombs were falling next to his flaming ship. Being propelled really far away, Obi-wan fell slowly towards the base, his plane exploding somewhere in the base as long with the 30 bombs, but the same being ignored by anti-aircraft guns... He would even try to see what it was, but only one mission was on his mind; to escape before the bombing and not to die when they tried to shoot him.

"Obi-wan is on base!" shouted Qui-gon, spinning his ship and dodging more lasers.

"We cannot delay the bombing! Direct the bombs to the north and south gates, you can feel in the Force that they will use armored vehicles to escape through these two gates!" molding himself to the plans, Anakin spun his plane into the air, scraping the 100-meter layer. An unexpected shot hit the back of the plane, black smoke emanating with speed from Anakin's ship, but not enough for him to lose control. On the panel, it showed that one of the smaller front wings had been lost. If he was hit again, he was going to fall. Luckily, he and Qui-gon were able to handle most of the speeders trying to escape and dropped the bombs at both gates, using the Force to throw them away from Obi-wan. As they again climbed the ship's beaks, several others were dispatched from the hangars that aren't on fire, their lasers being fast as Jabba's men's most up-to-date technology made the ships easily gain altitude. The second attack was, mostly, a failure.

"Foxtrot speaking! We have the right height and are preparing the rain! Just waiting for the 3rd attack!" echoed from Anakin's radio, causing him to swallow dry. With a quick maneuver, his ship's speed was drastically reduced, a barrel roll being used and with incredible skill, he was able to catch the tail of the fighter that was following him. His weapons fired exactly at the combustion and destroyed the ship, a smell of steel and plasticized material rising up next to the dense black smoke while the ship went directly to the sand of Tatooine.

Meanwhile, in frenzy, Obi-wan ran with speed through the hot concrete of the base, his saber diverting imminent gunfire and, using the Force, barring his way so that shots would not hit him. His eyes stopped at a speeder near a burning hangar, many bodies exploded and the smell of putrid, burning flesh in the air; he did not call, however. Running as fast as he could, Obi-wan stopped over two soldiers who came out of the burning hangar, carrying an unconscious soldier with speed... No... He was not a soldier. His forehead frowned, and even if a hell of fire surrounded him, things looked cold. It was just a woman, her bloody head and one of her legs were charred. She looked nothing but a civilian...! Being taken away the momentum of his thought, he had to quickly spin his saber, defending a shot that one of the men carrying the woman tried to give him. The shot came back and saw him leave the ground, the chest smoking. The other soldier screamed in terror, holding the woman tighter and trying to escape from the Jedi, not even firing his gun. Raising his hand and opening his mouth to try to explain himself, he widened his eyes as he saw a burning boulder fall on the man and woman, killing them instantly. A wall of saliva was in his throat and made it impossible to swallow it... But for now, he was going to have to continue. Ignoring his surroundings and his confusion as to why there were civilians on a military base, Obi-wan ran to the speeder, mounting him and turning its key. Strongly stepping on the pedal, he looked up, seeing Qui-gon and Anakin's two planes crossing the skies, fleeing the base area as they destroyed the ships following him. With precise maneuvers, Anakin managed to prevent most of the ships from hitting him and making the already bad damage to his front wing worse. From the corner, he observed a single speeder jump over the fence and walls around the base, maneuvering rapidly through fire, chaos, and smoke. Moving his gaze to the panel, he shouted in exasperation, his hair soaked in sweat.

"Alpha speaking, Obi-wan has left the firing line! We've got to fire the bombs now!"

"Quebec speaking, I can't now! One of the ships won't let go of me!" shouted Qui-gon, watching Jabba's men's black ship pass over his, trying to use the lower guns to fire from above. Being fast, Qui-gon turned the ship at a 90° angle, dropping himself and regaining speed soon after, going up as fast as he could. The other ship, however, followed him vehemently, almost seeming to predict the movements of the Jedi Master. Anakin then turned his ship one last time, throwing the lasers in the direction of the ship he was chasing, already moving quickly to meet Qui-gon and somehow knockdown that ship that followed the master.

"Foxtrot speaking, you're taking too long!"

"Alpha speaking, we're in trouble! Stand by for 3rd attack!" Facing the ship further ahead, Anakin flew behind it, which was trying to shoot Qui-gon at the moment. Before the boy could shoot, the ship moved out of the way, spinning and losing speed, soon regaling it and managing to stay behind Anakin. By very little, the boy managed to climb his ship away from the shots that would surely have brought him down. Seeing that the pilot of the other ship would not give up easily and his time was running out more and more, Anakin had to make an extremely risky move. Using his advantage over the enemy, he pulled with everything he had at the wheel, making the ship spin a full circle in the air while executing a barrel roll. The pilot's response to the first move was to go sideways... Biting his teeth and having a hard time holding the controls, Anakin was able to enjoy the enemy's response and, during the barrel roll, he lost speed and normalized his rotation, his angry finger on the trigger still spinning. Unable to escape, the plasma shots hit the ship hard, destroying its turbines and one of its wings. Quickly and in a smokescreen, he watched the last ship exploding in the air, the pilot being ejected.

"FOXTROT SPEAKING! WE'RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME! WE HAVE TO BOMB OR ALL THE SMOKE WILL STOP US FROM HAVING A CLEAR ATTACK!" shouted in clear desperation the fleet commander with almost a thousand feet above the ground. Ignoring the message completely, Anakin had to be quick to launch the ship's beak to the ground, losing altitude with speed. As he watched Qui-gon bomb the last of his bombs into the base, it took another five seconds for Anakin's bombs to finally be dropped, creating explosions and shock waves, increasing the fire and the amount of black smoke rising to the skies. The 3rd attack was done, and no shield was protecting the base now.

"ALPHA SPEAKING, WE SUCCESSFULLY BOMBED! RAIN FIRE!" it was more like a very long sigh than a scream, the anxiety and fear of not being able to do things in time were beating him. Flying away quickly to safety, he saw on the radar when several little red balls appeared, descending a thousand feet at high speed. The silence was kept for at least fifteen seconds... And suddenly, clouds of flames were bursting all sequentially, loud noises were being made and the dunes were splitting. The base is now engulfed and fire. 10.000 droids, 50 All Terrain Tanks and a lot of information are nothing but ashes now.

"LOOK OUT, ANAKIN!" on the communicator, Qui-gon shouted out to the little child. Before Anakin could understand anything, a hiss in the Force made his hair shiver, his ship flying close to where the wreckage of the ship chasing Qui-gon had been blown up. The Force suddenly screamed, and by very little, he was able to move just enough to escape the reddish, twinkling blade that went through the roof of his ship. The air was trapped in his lungs and the oxygen began to leak from his mask, torn by the red lightsaber during the attack. He would have been staring at the cylindrical heap of plasma if the Force hadn't screamed in his blood, one of his hands dropping the steering wheel of the ship and pointing at the saber, preventing him from cutting diagonally… But it was too hard! It was a totally different feeling than the times he used the Force on ordinary people. The sith was using his dominion of the Force to fight Anakin—and the Sith was winning.

His hand at the wheel began to waver and tremble, losing all control quickly and, frightened and unable to find a moment to breathe, Anakin could barely move. His eyes were caught in the red blade which, with everything, tried to cut and char the boy's body. His neck was stiffened by the quick thought of ending up as one of the thousands of victims he himself killed with his lightsaber... The result was always horrendous. Still, he had been thrown against the wall of his ship when the Force collision stopped suddenly, shots flying above the hood of his ship; it was Qui-gon. He had maneuvered towards Anakin and shot the Sith. Putting himself together as fast as he could, his arm still tingling, Anakin regained control of the ship and, unlike trying to normalize the flight, just a glance at the control panel made him change his mind. The sith had clipped one of his ship's wings.

By pulling the ejector lever, all the cabin pressure was taken at once, the seat being ejected and, very quickly, the ship began to fall.

However, in defiance of gravity, his chair was prevented from continuing to go up, the Force prevented it... His blue eyes, covered with aviation goggles, captured exactly who was trying to kill him, his muscles hardening with fear on seeing him. A double-bladed saber, flaming golden eyes, red skin, and black tattoos, horns and a heavy black cloak... That was a Sith. Further back, with a maneuver to spin the ship, Qui-gon moved in the direction of Anakin's falling ship, the Sith with a backpack on his back grabbing him with the Force. The next action of the reddish-colored man was to skillfully throw the saber like a boomerang in the direction of Anakin, then further jumping off the smoky metal of the ship that was heading towards the ground...! Using the Force, however, he managed to save only one last thing from the shipping compartment; a greenish capsule, which was soon sent in the direction of Qui-gon's ship.

…! The Jedi master's ship exploded into thousands of pieces, his seat flying in the opposite direction of Anakin. Guided by the Force, Anakin pulled his own lightsaber, defending himself from the spinning blade and forcing it too hard not to cut him in half. It was heavy, it contained a disastrously, horrific emotion trapped in its Kyber energy. It was purely the energy of the Dark Side materialized. With one of his arms already numb, Anakin was quickly giving in to the weapon, excessive sweat on his back and armpits, the sith a few meters from him forcing the saber with the Force towards the child, his parachute already open. With a sharp scream, muffled by the mask, Anakin trimmed the red saber away, turning it in the full opposite direction. His arms really hurt because of it. A fight using Force versus Force was more stressful than he imagined it would be... It made his two years in the field look like a joke.

The red-skinned enemy... The Sith, consumed by the dark side of the Force... He was going to be his real first enemy in a lightsaber fight. It wasn't gonna be a one-sided massacre, it was gonna be a fight of persistence and endurance. Anakin had no practice against real enemies or force-sensitives, but his power in the Force was the best of the galaxy. Darth Maul is more than a formidable warrior, but even he couldn't beat the Chosen One in a duel with the Force. Releasing his grip on the Force, a great explosion was heard near them, a thick layer of black smoke rising from the wreckage Anakin's ship had become... But now it didn't matter. On the dune, close to the burning inferno that was the molten metal cluster, Anakin and Darth Maul both freed themselves from the respective things on their backs. Sweating cold and swallowing dry, Anakin took off his useless mask and glasses, wielding his lightsaber with a certain difficulty.

On the other hand, Darth Maul threw the straps of his backpack down, taking some heavy steps with his double lightsaber in hand.

"You managed to survive, just as he said. Give it up, child. Lord Sidious has other plans for you."

"This is your master... another Sith?"

"Yes, and yours in the future." He spoke, closing his eyes with morbid amusement as he felt the child's anger in the Force, as well as his fear and confusion. "The Dark Side is an unimaginable potential within you. There is enough hatred so that, alone, you can destroy the entire Jedi Order." With a singing smile, Maul began to walk quickly towards the child. Every step he took, Anakin gave two back... It didn't take long for that to piss him off. "They call you 'demon with no fear', but you're afraid to face me. Coward! If you will not surrender, then fight for your life!" shouted, now running furiously, his saber being thrown towards Anakin before he could try to understand. The muscle memory of batting blasters rays came and, spinning the saber and dropping it hard, Anakin fought the lightsaber back to the sith, much easier now that he was on solid ground. Spinning and grabbing his Lightsaber, Maul lowered it under the child's head, he stepped back as he raised his saber. Anakin gasped as he saw the lower blade of the Lightsaber coming towards him, turning his right hand and connecting the saber with the other, but having to be even faster for when Maul turned his body, bouncing the saber horizontally at the height of his chest, and Anakin managing to bring his Lightsaber in time and trimming, but still being fragile to be pushed further back, the strength in his knees disappearing with each blow.

Upper attack, lower attack... Parry, trim, parry, step back, trimming, attack, attack... Red, green, red, red, red, green...What?! His eyes moved wildly, the blood anesthetized by the adrenaline running through his veins. Every second the battle extended, his mind lost any connection to a viable plan. It went from attacks from a certain direction to just attacks and now reddish and greenish blurs. He forgot to move his saber and just danced with it, totally focused on defending himself.

"YOU'RE A COWARD, CHILD! FIGHT WITH ME!" shouted Maul, dropping his saber hard on his head, finally breaking the boy's guard and throwing him rolling on the floor. Anakin barely used this roll and fled the lower attack, spreading sand everywhere, confused with his surroundings, getting up and almost falling again, settling on the ground and turning on his lightsaber, panting for any drop of air. But Maul was not going to give him anything. Jumping and spinning in the air, his saber again connected in a fervent and frenetic dance of connections and whitish glow, gray sounds close to his ears, doped up by the thrill of battle. The Force was disconnecting in the face of Anakin's need in this fight; calm was impossible to recover, the pain was strong and fear just grew.

... Everything was pulling towards the Dark Side.

_Use it... _

No... It was Kyp speaking in his ear, but Anakin sought to ignore him, his teeth clenched in a tremendous difficulty in deviating from Maul's attacks, the latter hitting him with a scrape on his poultry clothes, burning the fabric.

_The Dark Side. Use it, Anakin._

His anger boiled overhearing it from the crystal. His hatred for him was already great, as he never explained exactly what the consequences of using the Dark Side were and what it meant to the Jedi Order... And now, even after all, he was encouraging him to use the Dark Side of the Force! The wrath of betrayal, the dread, and eagerness of imminent death, the battle for his dream still whole. He didn't want to let Jabba live, ever! He would not let the Slaves of Tatooine fail! He must live... Anakin cannot die! But he doesn't want to use the Dark Side of the Force again either.

_Use it! It's your destiny, Anakin!_

"NO, IT'S NOT!" With an explosion of anger, Anakin forced his muscles into the saber of Maul, pushing it back. Spinning and letting saliva run down his mouth, Anakin found himself struck down in the direction of the Sith, the green blade connecting in the same way he did with the Tusken; no trajectory, no regret, no thinking... Just guided by his insatiable rage. And he took note of it, the shame of himself being born within him. The Dark Side's voracious tornado only grew stronger when squalor fused to anger. It was all Kyp's fault! It was his fault! The fault that his mother was dead; the guilt of his fall on the Dark Side; the guilt of Obi-wan hating him... His guilt, perhaps, could never be a Jedi...

… The guilt of making him just like this Sith, full of rage.

With his eyes bulging, Anakin shouted again.

"IT'S ALL HIS FAULT! IT WAS NEVER MINE!" His voice was pure hate, pure pain, and pure shame. He was purely the Dark Side of the Force. Holding tightly to his lightsaber, Anakin turned with violence, the sand being lifted up and Maul being driven back, a fanatical smile on his face when he saw that he had managed to make the child use the Dark Side in its full power. He had shivers on his spine while sensing all the dark emotions within the child's heart. The boy is perfect for the Dark Side. Losing any sense of reality, Anakin felt Kyp deep in his mind... He felt his hand grabbing the neck of the green silhouette, crushing it as Anakin's own tears fell into oblivion. That entity trained him for two years, taught him everything he knew... and had betrayed him. Anakin would never forgive him. At the hectic pace that his sabers collided, Maul began to fight back, his own dark side responding to Anakin's. It was a bizarre and sick mixture of two lecherous, disgusting things. Two entities outside of God's plan, of everything that was right. The Dark Side turned and played with Maul and Anakin's bodies, making them forget anything and just concentrate their huge sources of negative feelings on the tip of the lightsabers.

Anakin felt Kyp coughing in his mind. He felt the aura straining and convulsing in the strong grip around its neck... And he knew he was right. He was killing Kyp's spirit and he was doing justice, he was killing a traitor.

"THAT'S IT! USE MORE POWER! BURN EVERYTHING INSIDE OF YOU!" shouted Maul, his two-bladed saber being mere figures when they found Anakin's green, who was tightening his grip in the lightsaber, his face tired and decrepit as the boy was, nothing else mattered. The Dark Side was consuming himself of his skin and his soul, he would only realize his pains after the fight was over.

"I HATE YOU! I WILL KILL YOU!" With his cry bathed in hate, Anakin turned and as he screamed, a dark and voracious satisfaction ran into his mind... Metaphorical blood dripping from the green silhouette's mouth. Kyp's neck broke... Anakin did it. Anakin killed the Kyber Crystal without any remorse or pity. His eyes burned a deep gold and once again the two lightsabers met, both Maul and Anakin holding against each other... And the two were deeply red colored. In the same crazy and wild way that the flames of the destroyed ship behind them burned, Anakin was reborn in this fight. Savagery never before used, a look of pure blood-lust and hands and body spinning in a waltz bathed in adrenaline. No one had a clear advantage, but both muscles retracted and relaxed in almost milliseconds. The body had no time to recover, that would give the enemy an advantage and neither of them wanted that. Rational thinking did not even exist for Maul, who was now numb on the Dark Side along with Anakin.

Attack, attack, parry, step back, jump over the head, parry, parry, attack, attack, turn, turn, parry, defense, step back, attack, attack, defense, parry, turn, parry, attack, attack, attack, attack, attack, attack, attack, attack, attack, attack.

With saliva and sweat flying to the wind, Anakin lost all the reins, and with tears in his reddish eyes, he only began to approach and attack. Maul had lost control of the fight and his knees were giving way, his red blade being hit hard... But with only a second, he managed to see a more than a childish pattern in the boy's attacks. It was as if he had never trained. With a strong tack at the right moment, Anakin was sent rolling in the sand, his lightsaber being turned off momentarily. The next second, standing up regardless of integrity, Anakin called the lightsaber and the battle resumed.

Attack, parrying, parrying, attack, attack, parrying, attack, parrying, jump back, throw Lightsaber, use Force Push, Lightsaber back in hand, attack, attack, parry, attack -

Suddenly, with a leap, Maul threw his saber in the direction of Anakin who, not caring about the growing pain in his arms, deflected the saber with an attack during a spin. Maul used the opportunity to jump over the heated metal of Anakin's ship, stopping in the area with fewer flames. Clenching his teeth, Anakin jumped behind him, using the Force to send his saber in the direction of Maul who repelled using the Force. The sands of the Tatooine desert were repulsed when both the Force-sensitive were lying on top of the burning metal, the pain didn't matter and an abnormal concentration on the swirling lightsaber, which trembled in the air during the Force combat. Maul was extremely trained in the Force and had an impressive refinement, but Anakin was just too strong. Maul had been pushed back steps, the saber coming at him with high speed. Being fast, the Force brought its two-blade saber just long enough for him to spin and defend Anakin's saber, the boy pulling it back to him as soon as he was in front of Maul, the battle resuming on top of the destroyed ship-! In the Force, however, they both felt a shiver of danger. Maul was the first to jump away from the ship, Anakin following him and, in a roll, his sabers meeting the instant the ship exploded into another ball of fire and black smoke.

Defense, defense, parry, attack, step back, attack, parry, attack, defense, jump over the head, Force Pull, throw saber, catch saber with the Force, attack, attack, attack, attack.

Sweat cascaded, his sighs for air were extremely hot with the excessive amount of carbon dioxide and lack of air in their lungs. Their cells burned to death in this intensive fight. Anakin only attacked, guided by the Dark Side and nothing else. His pain was converted into power instantly and nothing would stop him at that moment. Maul, realizing he was being beaten by a child, gritted his teeth and, with a kick in Anakin's ribs, screamed.

"YOU WILL NOT DESTROY ME!" His scream exploded into hate, the Dark Side being fed as never before. The battle resumed when, rolling on the sands and jumping towards Maul, Anakin shocked his lightsaber, his blood-red eyes staring at Maul's and not showing an ounce of fear of the Sith monster... It was just hatred. Frenzy doped his blood like steroids. The Force was undecided as to who would win, so the fight would only end when someone fell to their knees... And, hallucinated with rage, Anakin and Maul didn't want to fall. However, Maul's attention left the boy's blade and turned to the green Qui-gon blade that flew towards him. Defending it with the lower part of his saber and turning to defend Anakin's blade, Maul was not fast enough, being pushed back hard by the boy. Falling to the ground and rolling to get up, he saw when the Jedi rushed to the summit of the dune, using the Force to strengthen his feet. This moment gave him the clarification that he could not beat a Jedi Master and this Dark Side epitaph at the same time. His mind returned to Anakin when, with a shout and the lightsaber raised in the air, he burst towards him...! Only to be pushed by a Maul Force Push that, looking between the boy and the Jedi Master climbing the dune, ran immediately away, to the speeder that he had landed in case of emergency situations on a nearby mountain... An emergency situation like this one.

But in the back of his mind, engulfed by hatred... He promised that he would, someday, kill Anakin Skywalker.

* * *

**Fun fact: Darth Tyrannus' name, Count Dooku, was changed here in Brazil because it means "Fuck ass" or "Give ass". It's Count Dookan now.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Whassup! A brand new chapter, I hope yall like it! And we have 2 new reviews, yay!**

**Death Fury (chap 4) **thanks for keeping the read, man! Yeah, I too feel sorry for him, but the cruel destiny must fulfill its goals.

**Guest (chap 2) **That's pretty much the entire history summarized, oh boi.

**Well, have a nice read!**

* * *

Sighing heavily and struggling to get up, Anakin tried to open his eyes and find Maul... But, strangely enough, the gold in his pupils only saw endless darkness. Confusion struck the boy, his reddish saber sparkling in his hand. Even if he moved his head from side to side, nothing but darkness was visible. The horizon, however, was not connected to the ground, giving the impression that there was a sky. Blinking for a moment, he saw when gray clouds began to run high into the sky, even though there were no stars visible.

"A Sith trick..." he wondered, the lack of an enemy making his heavy anger start to go empty. There was no way to keep it without someone to blame... But the feeling of the Dark Side clinging to his heart, melted over his flesh like candle wax, appetizing for his soul... It was all still there. Moving his eyes down, Anakin found his lightsaber. Red. Bloody, wrapped in pain and death; only the morbid corpse of what was left of Kyp. Swallowing dry, however, his grip on the handle began to soften, his wrists trembling... Yes... Kyp no longer existed. He killed him for his treason. Though Anakin repeated those words in his head, nothing seemed more right than the moment he was in the Dark Side's influence. A growing regret was taking over his heart. He killed the being who did everything to help him save his mother... Who stood by his side during the cold, tear-filled nights of the year when he only crossed the desert in search of more Tusken to kill. Anakin did not do justice, he was not right.

As much as Kyp wanted him to use the Dark Side, he was still his mentor and friend... And Anakin killed him in cold blood.

_**He has no regrets. The Force demanded his death. He just followed orders. **_

Unlike Kyp, the voice that popped up was closer to his forehead. It was horribly frightening. Chills ran through his body and his spine became erect, but Anakin couldn't move his lightsaber in any direction. The voice reverberated in his head in a way that made his flaming Dark Side tornado look like just the winds of a cold night. The entity carried a thunderstorm of red and blue, of acid drops and purely destructive energy... The voice... was nothing but pure power. With his throat pinned, Anakin stretched his eyes across the landscape. The sky was still black, but now things like ethereal trees were appearing from the ground, illuminating a path of reddish and purple light.

_**The death of the crystal was the last step necessary for you to acquire your passage to Mortis.  
**_  
"Mortis..." repeated the last word without any knowledge of what it meant. It sounded like the name of a place. Anakin did not digest all the words in his voice, which rumbled in his head like thunderstorms from the same thunderstorm quoted earlier. Each word was accompanied by extra weight, grams of raw power sifted the vocal cords of the entity that proclaimed them. "Who are you...?" he questioned, his child's feet slowly beginning to carry him down the black path ahead.

_**I was the one who held both sides of the Force. I was the strongest of them all. I am the light, I am the darkness—I am the Force... I am your father, Anakin. **_

"But I... I don't have a father."

_**You are the son of the Force, Anakin. You are my son... Come, follow my voice.**_

With an exasperated sigh and no word to refute, Anakin just kept thinking of the word 'father'. What father meant to him? His mother never told him who his father was, if he was still alive or what had happened to him... It was always just him and his mother. There was never a third letter in that equation. The voice moved in his head and in the Force he felt that those trees and their lights would only lead him to the dark, gray sky horizon… Gently closing his eyes, the horizon formed like a mountain, the trees guiding him from foot to top. Seeing the black mountain, his heart began to beat with a feeling of haste, increasing the speed of his steps. Before he could notice, the red lightsaber had disappeared from his hand. His parasitic thought of having a father was what was causing all this. At that moment where he had nothing, the appearance of a figure who would care for him; who would love him… was too appealing. A quick run came along with the tears in his eyes.

"Father…" he whispered.

_**Come, Anakin. Come into my arms. **_

The gray clouds stopped running and, strangely enough, began to form a halo around the top of the black mountain, the trees growing higher and more systematically, forming a straight line to the top. The look of hope rose on Anakin, the feet bustling with the interim will to reach the top of this mountain.

"I'm coming!" he shouted, almost stumbling, but managing to recover and start climbing the mountain path.

_**Together... father and son... we can bring peace to the galaxy, Anakin. **_**  
**  
Anakin widened his eyes and stopped for a moment, his mind trapped in the figure he saw in the darkness of the mountain top. He was humanoid and tall, wearing a black cape and a mask... And he was looking at him. He, his father, was waiting on top of this mountain of pure darkness. And all Anakin wanted was a tight, full of love hug from him. However, all the darkness began to flicker. The pitch-black ground beneath his feet was shaking, tearing itself apart in its own structure all of a sudden.

_**Your time here is over, Anakin... But it won't be the last time you visit me.**_

"What?... I don't want to leave, not now! Please, don't let me go!" he shouted, scared and increasingly rushed, trying to run with speed to the top, but the shaking and melting darkness itself made it difficult. Still, his vision didn't leave his father... And his eyes only glowed brighter when a bluish ghost appeared next to his father. "Mum... MUM! FATHER!" his tears only grew bigger when he saw in the summit at the distance, both his creators looking at him, unreachable. The ground had begun to suck Anakin into the darkness, and no matter how hard he fought, it was impossible to escape.

_**Next time you return... we'll be together. And your future will be on track, Anakin. **_

It was the last thing his father said before, holding his mother's hand, he turned and walked into the darkness, away from Anakin's eyes.

"NO!" his cry was accompanied by a yellowish and bluish vastness in front of him. The sandy taste was attached to his lips, the intense heat made his eyes half-open and Tatooine's dry air made his hair fly in the wind. With tears falling aimlessly, he looked back and forth. His exploded ship was still there, in ravenous flames. The sith ran far in the distance, but Anakin didn't want to follow him, he didn't have the willpower to do it, now that all the adrenaline and the dark side had left his blood, his eyes once golden, now blue... And then, his eyes fell on the lightsaber turned on his hand... Red...

Sickening. Red. Bloody... It was a reflection of him.

Without a second thought, Anakin threw his lightsaber on the floor, the same one turning off at the moment of the knock. And unscrupulously, he began to stomp on the saber with his heavy pilot's boot.

"NO! NO! NO! NO!" his screams went out with each step on the saber. Qui-gon frowned at Anakin and the man running in the distance, his green saber already in his hand. In the Force, Anakin was an endless well of sadness, remorse, and pain. He had powerfully touched the Dark Side and let it overpower him... The lifelessness of the crystal, along with the red coloring of the saber, gave all the information the Jedi master needed to know. Anakin had lost all control of his emotions and his sorrow became too powerful... and, in that mindless mode, killed Kyp, the only one who stood by his side for years of suffering.

... an outbreak and a consequence...

Ignoring Obi-wan's speeder from a distance, Qui-gon turned off his saber, walking slowly to Anakin who with loud tears stepped on the lightsaber without stopping, the metal already shattered and the circuits torn and filled with sand. The only thing left was the red crystal, shining sore. For Ani, that was the body of his old and dear friend, who had died for his actions and his incompetence...! And with one last strong tread, the crystal cracked in the middle, Anakin falling to his knees soon after. "No…" a last wheeze of pain.

Qui-gon stooped down beside him, wrapping the child in a strong embrace. Anakin was extremely quick to squeeze the Jedi Master, crying in his chest with shrieks of pain and trying any way to get those feelings out of his chest. He was just a child who wanted to stop feeling pain, sadness... A child who was experiencing the strongest of regrets; that of killing someone dear.

The Demon with no fear, the Tuskenslayer, the Sithspawn... Nothing but a child.

And Obi-wan was watching it very closely. His master would swing the child and hold him as if he were his own son... And that disgusted the padawan. Jedi is forbidden to have bonds, but still, Qui-gon comforted the boy. Obi-wan's hairs whistled in hatred and his facet became hard on seeing the master simply rising from the ground with the boy in his arms after just over a minute. Tears and extreme exhaustion put Anakin to sleep.

"Obi-wan... We will return to Mos Sima, Anakin needs rest."

"Yes, master." He answered dry, watching Qui-gon going to the speeder with enough room for four people. Before he began to move, Obi-wan moved his brown eyes to the destroyed lightsaber on the ground... The red crystal indicated everything he needed to know. Using the Force, the crystal flew to his hand, soon being stored in his robe. His master was betraying the Jedi code and creating an attachment to a Sith. If all goes wrong and he doesn't see reason, Obi-wan can only rely on the Jedi Council. The journey back to Mos Sima was turbulent. Nearby settlements were alerted and many reinforcements were sent and three times Obi-wan and Qui-gon were approached by Jabba soldiers. The slave air force had to flee because of the delay in the 3rd attack and the damage to the attack force, so they had to make all the way back to Mos Sima with the speeder. It took about 11 hours to get to the city on the monolith.

What Anakin said was right; just as the news that Mos Diin had been destroyed, the slaves began to organize a gigantic fleet. All the vehicles mounted, even the gigantic All Terrain Tanks were being moved off the base, creating a sort of long, long queue. Thousands of slaves were carrying things from inside the base out and organizing. It didn't take long for them to be approached by one of Anakin's generals who, looking worried, was waiting for them with some armed men.

"Ani, by the stars..." with a long sigh of relief, the light-haired woman walked patiently to the speeder near Mos Sima's main gates, a blaster rifle hanging from her back and a long black cape around her body. Qui-gon observed that they were going to make long journeys through the desert towards Mos Diin, so it was going to be difficult without protection. Turning off his speeder, Obi-wan observed his master who, throughout the journey, carried Anakin in his arms, getting up from where he was standing. "Our towers almost shot at you because of the speeder. Come here, give me him!" he demanded, taking the fainted child from Qui-gon's hands. "After the report came in and we found out the whole air raid fell, the apprehension at the base was high."

"I wouldn't be so worried... Anakin is a great warrior, that is beyond dispute."

"He's our greatest hope of ending this nightmare of slavery... Losing him is a terror none of us want to have." spoke with a tired sigh. Everything was too busy and too fast, sleep was beyond the reach of any of the generals. Pulling a holo out of her belt, the woman sent a message. "_Get a stretcher, Anakin just arrived._" the message was clear and fast. Raising his scarred chin, Marca nodded to Qui-gon and Obi-wan. "Thank you, Jedi... What Ani said about always trusting you could not be more certain. Rest for now, we leave tomorrow at 5 in the morning. If Ani is not recovered by this time, you will leave at the same time with us and without contest." She commanded with a serious look, expecting no response from the two Jedi as she saw the stretcher coming from inside the gates next to a medical speeder. Together with the 5 man team, the General left, one of the men passing by Obi-wan and Qui-gon and heading for the speeder they brought, taking it away.

"Come on, Obi-wan. We have only a few hours until dawn." Apparently tired, the Jedi master made ahead move for his padawan.

"Right, master..."

But Obi-wan didn't want to rest. The fact that his master was creating an attachment to Anakin was eating him up inside. How was that possible?! Qui-gon Jinn is one of the greatest Jedi masters of all and had a more than admirable connection to the of Light Side... And yet he was sinking so deep that he had sympathy for a Sithspawn. The proof was in the pitiful bloody crystal, killed by hatred and cut off from its connection with Anakin... Obi-wan predicted it would happen, it just happened sooner than he predicted; the boy was swallowed completely by the Dark Side. He had no salvation left. It didn't take long for the Jedi to return to Anakin's apartments, Queen Amidala and her maids were asleep. Because of that war, Queen Amidala would have to be transported along with the other 20,000 soldiers marching on Mos Eisley. The plan was to get her and the Jedi safely to a spaceport and quickly get her off the planet.

Tomorrow was going to be a busy day for both Jedi and the Queen, so a proper rest was going to be very necessary. Padmé, however, did not comply. With a black cape covering her body, she crossed the main medical wing of Mos Sima and greeted some of the slaves on her way, looking from one side to the other while looking for a certain patient... It was difficult since the three days extremely full of attacks took a lot of these warriors, men and women. Still, it didn't take her much longer to find Anakin Skywalker lying in his own room and in his own bed, as opposed to cloth on the floor; everyone said it was what a hero deserved. Because his condition was nothing but fatigue, Padmé was allowed in by one of the nurses in the place.

With a calm smile, she observed the child's face with a swollen chest. There were traces of tears on his face and, in fact, his features were of undeniable pain.

"Oh, poor child..." she commented to herself, pulling a stool and placing it beside Anakin's bed. Looking at him was difficult; because of the lighter clothes, the scars of years of struggle were visible all over his body. Marked arms, flared shoulders, his right hand contented with a large blackening of withered and retracted skin, light tremors of limbs that were too tense, for too long. He was a warrior without glory and with much sadness in his shoulders. Again, the anger for this negligent Rebellion grew inside her chest. How could they have made such a small child fight? And worse, they encouraged him to do so... They said they were fighting for peace and justice, but they treated the boy as the main tool for success. As a queen from an early age, she was able to understand how much responsibility he had with him, and what it was like to carry all this without someone to understand.

With his eyebrows low, Padmé saw when he shook his head slightly, a lonely tear descending from his right eye.

"Don't go... Father." He whispered softly as the tear made its way to the pillow. The girl couldn't take it after that. Her hand moved and her heart cried beside Anakin, her slightly stiff palm for every day in the Tatooine Desert leaving marks made its way through Anakin's threads. A simple affection, going from top to bottom in the golden hair he had. A sad smile was born in Padmé when she saw that his aspect of pain, at least, had diminished with her so calm affection.

"It's all right, Ani... That dog's life will soon be over." Padmé whispered. No other tears came down from Anakin while, still slumbering, he felt the hand of the queen of Naboo passing through his head.

"Padmé..." he didn't wake up, but the name loosened from his mouth.

"Rest for now. Recover your strength, your resolve. For all the slaves who trust you, and me. Sweet dreams, Anakin." With one last affection, Padmé wiped her eyes with her fist; his condition hurt her heart deeply. Rising and going to the door, Padmé followed out of the medical tent, one last smile being sent to the child, her chocolate eyes finding him for a moment. And then she left... And with the image of an angel wrapped in light in his dreams, Anakin had fully awakened. Noticing at first that he had been in the medical area so many times before, the boy was quick to sit on the edge of the bed, a sound of pain as his back and shoulders snapped. Memories of the fight against the Sith flooded his head with every crack of oxygen inside the cartilage in his bones.

His mood was not good; indeed, he was sad. Kyp... He never deserved any of it. Even though his father had said it was destiny fulfilling, Anakin couldn't help but feel a wave of shame in his mind as he jumped out of bed and hit his feet on the ground. Strangely enough, the image of an ethereal and beautiful figure of light shone in his mind, as if she was caring for him at a time when the pain was so great. His memories were consumed by the Light Side during all this and gradually his mind was whitening the events. With a long sigh, however, he did not forget what day it was, hearing so much constant movement as the light of Tatooine's two suns through the window of the medical area. As he greeted the nurses and the sick, Anakin took no more than thirty seconds to leave the medical area, the warm desert heat burning his skin. In the Force, he could feel how few people there were here in Mos Sima. Most of the hangars were empty of any weapons or personnel, as were the streets, meaning they had already started the march to Mos Eisley. He would have to leave today with his fleet to go around Tatooine. Hurrying up and ignoring the latent pain in his muscles, he swiftly arrived at his apartment, a feeling of emptiness occurring when he didn't see the angelic maid there, sitting and reading... Still, it was a feeling buried in his chest as he made for his own room.

Pulling a holo midway, Anakin began to record a message.

"Everybody pack up. We leave before six in the afternoon." Considering it was already eight o'clock in the morning, his entire team would have enough time to settle in until the two suns set. Curiously, when he arrived in his room, a black box was in his bed next to a holo record. I was named Qui-gon in the metal. Whereas it was a message from the Jedi master, Anakin did not fail to have a little smile on his face. Qui-gon was a man who understood him and welcomed him... Even if Obi-wan hated him at first glance of the dark side, Qui-gon saw hope for Anakin's future. He really had a giant appreciation for the Jedi master. Not expecting much, the child sat on the bed and put the holo to play. Shaking slightly, the image of a tiny, blue Qui-gon appeared.

_"Anakin, forgive me for not being there to say this in person, but my duty to Queen Amidala is above me. So I'm leaving this message especially for you. Inside this box you see is all the materials needed to create a zero-shell lightsaber. Even if you don't have a special table, I still have hope for you since I have seen your skills as a mechanic and I believe you will have success. I feel very sorry for what happened to Kyp and your old saber, just as I believe it wasn't your fault that you had to use the Dark Side again... Still, I am proud that you have managed to survive a duel with an actual sith, and this only proves how adept you are in the Force. Good luck with creating your own lightsaber, Anakin. I didn't have another Kyber crystal on me, just this blue one. I recommend that you always carry materials for a new lightsaber with you everywhere you go. It's too easy just to simply lose your current one. Good luck training in my teachings, too. _

_May the Force be with you, Anakin."_

"And with you too, Master Qui-gon..." panting at the end of the message, blue eyes falling into the box after the image of Qui-gon fell into thin air. An excitement suddenly passed through his spine when he actually noticed what he would do; creating a lightsaber from scratch... How incredible did that sound? It was awesome! Being quick to pick up the box, he noticed the great resemblance that this box had to the box that he had found in Grand Master Yoda's saber. The same congruent buttons and the same suitcase system. Anakin's eyes glowed with excitement and possibilities when he saw a cylindrical metal casing, blue and red threads, tips, screws, bolts, nuts and, especially, a small crystal of strong blue color. His instincts as a builder whistled to see all these pieces and shouted that 'yes... He could make changes to the saber layout'. Salivating from possibilities, Anakin dressed as fast as he could in his pilot suit, sending a message to his lieutenant to prepare his reserve ship, because he' d be busy all afternoon building and improving his lightsaber to his taste. Bad memories were not forgotten, but they were sunk enough so that the extra tiredness and pain would not bother him for the next few hours.

A concept of an energy blade was incredible and, in Anakin's mind, extremely dangerous. Without the Force acting, giving himself the minimum weight the handle has, having less than a kilo, the chance to spin it a lot and hit himself are enormous. With the Force, Anakin could feel the weight of the blade and its energy running through the Kyber crystal. While in his workshop, many ideas went through his head in the few hours he had to work. His mind stayed mostly on that sith's double lightsaber. The type of combat was totally different from his own, but it still didn't take away how impressive a double blade could be. If he had two crystals, he wouldn't doubt that he could recreate it. The next idea he came up with was to make the saber bend. A straight blade is good, it hits and cuts directly, but a half-moon blade would be unpredictable and would allow broad attacks and still cut just as effectively.

It was a good idea... But it simply didn't fit with his direct, trimming style. And the chance of losing balance momentarily and the blade piercing his eye was not pleasant.

Not reaching an agreement with himself, Anakin ended up making the saber a straight 73-centimeter blade, just like his old saber. Turning it on and seeing the blue glow under his face was a vital feeling. Twisting it seemed really right and the feeling of cutting a useless metal tube invaded him with satisfaction. His own blade, functional and deadly... Would his father be proud of this creation? Tightening the grip with force, that question stuck in his mind for a few seconds. The will and trepidation of seeing his father once again in that world of blackness came and went all the time he was awake. There were so many questions in his mind, so many things to talk about... so much to know. The limitations put him in chains and he felt bad about everything.

… In fact, he wanted to hold his father tight. A figure who was never in his life but now suddenly appeared, and is so precious to him. Shaking his head as he made eye contact with the watch on his wrist, Anakin was quick to check his holo, the saber stuck in his waist. The whole fleet was ready and all that was missing was him and the fuel in the planes so that they finally took off for a full month's journey around Tatooine. It was the final move before the Rebellion's ultimatum. Do or die. Letting out a sigh of enlightenment, Anakin rushed towards the hangar where his ship would be. He was going to do all that and it was going to happen. He is the Chosen One of the Force and he would not fail...

For the safety of his angel, for his dream of becoming a Jedi and freeing the Slaves from Tatooine... For his mother, who always loved him from beginning to the cruel end. And now, for his father, who had expectations for him. With a firm hand on the saber at his waist, Anakin stared into Tatooine's skies as he ran, the twin suns on the horizon, bathing the earth the slaves' owners considered theirs.

... Anakin was going to rid this planet of the plague that contaminates it.

During Tatooine's binary sunset, three freighters left the base. All were massive for a planet, but pale compared to those of the Republic, which could hold up to 100,000 men. Murmurs even said that the largest of the freighters could fit over a million people. They were surprising and frightening numbers, but also with a stigma of liars. Anakin's routine changed in front of that day. Waking up every day before the sunrise, doing all his human needs and leaving soon to check the area around the freighters with the reconnaissance fleet. During the nights they would stop and hide. When there was no danger around, Anakin would leave it to his lieutenant to lead the air forces and return to the freighter, beginning to meditate and train his fight with the lightsaber, as well as keeping himself informed of the news and messages in his holo—principally those he exchanged with Qui-gon and his three generals on the army march through the lands of Tatooine.

For a whole week, everything happened quite normally. Attacks just came and went, falling in comparison to Anakin Skywalker's bird leadership.

Everything seemed to go in an exceptional way... until one day.

–**Obi-wan–**

Of all that has happened in recent times, one detail that kept Obi-wan by surprise was that quick memory of a civilian at the military base. The Force urged him to think about it, and yet he never showed signs of danger in the vicinity. It was even as if the Force was trying to play a trick on him, and it was making him sick. With the feeling in mind, his meditation was ruined.

Sighing a difficult gasp and looking around as he got up, Obi-wan saw Queen Amidala, carefree, reading a holo, surrounded by her maids. The speeder was big enough to fit thirty people inside, so the Queen didn't make a point of moving her head to look at Obi-wan. The latter, still strange with this feeling in the Force, moved to a window seat, observing the area they were now passing... It was a wide passage between two peaks, narrow enough for the various armored vehicles to pass through consecutively. Outside, however, several beggars were wearing cloaks and dirty, mistreated by the weather and the situation of Tatooine. They had eyes either of disgust or of hope in the slave army that crossed the place...

…

…

... Something was... off. Opening his eyes gradually, Obi-wan stared at each of those dirty, pitiful beggars. Everyone covered their faces. All of them... Finally, his sense of strangeness was answered by the Force. Something was wrong with all this. The images of the military base, of the civilian, again returned to him.

"Master... something's wrong. This... We're walking straight into a trap!" shouted Obi-wan, calling so much attention of the Queen, her maids and Qui-gon himself. His gaze, Qui-gon's, was suspicious and indecisive with the padawan's proclamation.

"There are only homeless people out there, Obi-wan. I don't know if the men—" being cut off suddenly by their apprentice, Qui-gon felt Obi-wan's extreme discomfort in the Force. It was as if he had made an extremely, important discovery.

"During the attack on Mos Diin... I saw a civilian in place. There was too much disorganization and fear in the Force... Only a few weren't so afraid in that place. So many shots were missed and it was too easy just to block my way through the entire place... Master... There were almost no trained soldiers in that camp! It was all the beggars who were supposed to be here! All those people we bombed were nothing but homeless and hungry people!" Hyperventilating, Obi-wan felt his knees trembling, facing the quiet Queen Amidala and then his master. "We have to get out of here, quick! Or the Queen will be in danger, master!"

Meanwhile, on the front lines, that same general of Anakin watched the decrepit with a sad look. Everyone there was like that because of the war... Because of them and Jabba. And yet, there were such hopeful looks, murmuring requests for them to win the war and finally free the world from all the cruelty it had suffered for centuries. Her heart even swelled when a woman, stepping forward and holding a baby sleeping serenely in her arms, spoke.

"General Marca... Is the hero all right?" she mentioned Anakin.

"He is, ma'am. We are marching right now to make this planet a better place for you and your child." A warm feeling came over her, other soldiers from her division just watching this cute, little encounter unfold.

"How nice... Don't you think that's nice, Anakin?" played with her little son, his little hand reaching for his mother's finger. Turning her gaze back at the General, she extended the baby towards her. "Would you bless him, General Marca? Please?" she asked solemnly.

"Oh... But... But of course, I can. If I can manage fat-ass guns, the too I can hold a baby..." smiling, the young woman stooped down just enough to hold the baby in her arms. His little eyes were green, his hair was a warm color and it mended like fire. He was a beautiful baby. "It must be wonderful to be a mother... bringing life and watching it grow, carrying hope for our future. You must be very proud of your child, ma'am." the woman commented softly, waving the child relatively heavy in your arms... Too heavy.

"You can bet... even more now, General Marca." With a terrifying smile, the woman sneaked something out of her sleeve. A trigger. Marca didn't even have time to understand exactly what happened when a strong light erupted the baby in her arms... The baby, at the push of a button, exploded into a plasma ball, killing both the supposed beggars and General Marca alongside a part of her division. With this explosion and only a second of silence, a chorus of weapons being taken out appeared among the beggars. In the next second, a plasma corridor was thrown over the great Slave army which, no matter how many they had, were still ordinary people who had only one year of training. The next few minutes were nothing but a one-sided massacre that Anakin felt in the Force.  
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**"Do not bomb the baby!" - Ghandi, seconds before destroying me with nuclear bombs.**

**See you next time!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Whassup! We're heading to the finals of the Tatooine Arc :D**

**And two more reviews! For two well know guys!**

**Death Fury (chap 5) **thanks as always!

**Guest (chap 4) **glad to know even such a long chapter was fun to you, my man! Development? Ha! Good to know!

**Grab a warm cup of Yorkshire tea, ladies and gentlemen, and have a nice read!**

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Blood... all he saw was blood.

In front of him, a red-colored ghost. He had no face, just a humanoid shape. Still, Anakin was able to recognize when the entity started crying in crimson tears.

_Why, Ani?_

It was Kyp's voice.

_Why did you murder me? I've always been at your side. I've always been your friend. I always kept you and provided you with the right directions... So why?_

Anakin tried to talk, but his throat was too heavy, as well as a frivolous feeling of danger that appeared in that area of his neck, near the scar that always remained hidden; the scar that was left after he removed his bomb chip. Passing his finger in that region, he felt the tumor of the small, deadly object there again, swallowing it dry. His right to speak had been revoked because, in the face of his actions, he had no excuses. He killed Kyp because he allowed himself to be consumed, no one but himself is to blame. His heart weighed a hundred tons and Anakin attempted to cry, only to find that he could not do it. In front of him, the reddish Kyber crystal lowered its head, getting a little closer to Skywalker. And the next moment, with his ethereal arms, he squeezed Anakin in a hug.

_I did everything for you because I loved you, Anakin. I was connected with you in a way I'd never been with Yoda. I was wrong from the beginning; you were my chosen one... And you killed me, Anakin._

The pain of not being able to cry, of not being able to take those dark feelings out of his heart, just made Anakin hate himself even more. He didn't want to suffer that way. He just wanted to stop feeling so many bad feelings... why couldn't he have any comfort? Why couldn't he? Why couldn't he feel good about himself? Why did everything have to especially hurt him? A big yolk of pain gathered in his heart with what he did to his mentor and friend, Kyp. He had a huge regret about killing him... and yet the crystal appeared in his dreams not to scream at him, nor to hate on him. He'd rather have it that way... But Kyp always says those words, and they always hurt so much. Anakin couldn't return the hug, he couldn't return the love, because everything about him was just hate and pain.

With a tear descending from the corner of his eye, Anakin awoke on sight, still phantasmagorical feeling Kyp's arms around his body, warm and loving they were... Nevertheless, his curiosity drew his attention to the real world, not caring about the tear from which descended through his eye. At the table next to his bed, his holo beeped frantically... Looking out the tiny window, he noticed that it was still very late at night. A bad sensation crept upon him when a slight danger arose in the Force. Bringing the holo to his hand with a Force pull, Anakin responded to the message.

_Anakin! _

His eyes widened when he saw that the little blue image was of Padmé. Her forehead bled and she was terrified, a blaster in her hand and a ducking pose. In the background, he heard an unstoppable symphony of lasers and... Sabers of light, as well as metal being blown up and an excessive amount of screaming. The feeling of panic and danger in the Force crashed to the ceiling and, before he could digest the information, Anakin had already jumped from his bed into his wardrobe, airplane clothes in sight.

_We are under heavy fire! Qui-gon and Obi-wan are fighting... But there are too many of them! The slaves... _

She didn't even have to complete his phase so that Anakin would finally understand what that feeling was. His whole body shivered and, silently, tears began to come down his cheeks, just speeding up the process of dressing up in the pilot's outfit. Thousands were dead and dozens were dying from second to second. On the other side of the planet, Anakin felt the sorrows and grieves of all the slaves ascending in the Force...

_We need help, or we will die! Please... Save us, Anakin!_

She shouted in anguish, fear embracing her voice, biting her teeth and struggling with tears as she got up and started shooting with the blaster in her hand. The message was suddenly closed, leaving only the silence of the room behind... No... The word 'die' from Padmé's mouth was the key that simply destroyed all the chains of his mind. His eyes glowed in an angry hell of gold, the saber flying at his waist when the pilot's clothes were all over his body. With the fastest ship here, the time to get to where he felt Padmé was at least 6~8 hours... He had to leave as quickly as possible.

The moment he left his room and started running to the airfield on the main freighter, Anakin noticed all the madness the Rebels were going through. Their fears painted their faces and a total uncertainty made them run everywhere, with a bland concept of what to do. As he ran, Anakin made his voice reverberate through the corridors in the best pitch he could achieve.

"SEND MESSAGES TO OUR ENTIRE FLEET! THE ATTACK THE JABBA PALACE IS SHUT DOWN, WE MUST LEAVE IMMEDIATELY TO MEET WITH THE MAIN ARMY!" shouted the child, drawing the attention of any passing soldier. Every soldier who had a holo began to pass on that same message to the others, and quickly the sirens of the three freighters were ringing loudly in the night, the same message waking up all the soldiers to the situations, as well of killing the silence that the Tatooine desert could offer on nights. The attack was impossible to perform now. The enormous losses he felt only increased with the seconds... No morale, no staff, and no weapons and, in fact, the plan has lost its pantaloons. Attacking the palace was futile and would only end with the rest of the army. Squeezing his lip in fear, Anakin closed his fists and made his step accelerate in all this... It no longer mattered to him if all the attacks would fail.

All his heart wanted was the safety of Qui-gon... And the Angel.

Arriving at the airfield, Anakin watched all the ships leave systematically and, in a formation, began to circle the freighters, just waiting for Anakin himself to guide their actions through the night sky. As he passed by, the soldiers who maintained and supplied the ships saluted him, their eyes filled with fear and blindly hope. Anakin was the only one who could save them from such a sudden and frightening situation right now. Soon, one of the main mechanical engineers approached the boy; a female Twi'lek of a marshy green color.

"Anakin, we prepared our trump card for you; The Starfighter, 'Cross Doom'. His speed is 500 kilometers per hour, it will take you about 6-8 hours to arrive." the woman spoke, following the fast pace of Anakin's black cape, a clipboard in her hand.

"What about the 30, 31, and 32 airborne unit?"

"The ships are not as up to date, so reinforcement will take a few hours... Director Vimgu gave the order for the freighters to leave for Mos Sima—he asked for your voice in this situation."

"He's right; send the freighters to Mos Sima and start gathering more supplies, we'll have to recover from this attack as soon as possible. Send all the reinforcements you can, we need to save as many people as possible." With a tense face, Anakin observed his Starfighter, the fastest ship the Rebellion could acquire during an assault... She was assigned exclusively for Anakin to use. With X-shaped turbines, 16 of them and a more than impressive breaking speed. Jabba spent a lot for a unit of these technological beauties and, in fact, managed to reduce several of the heists the Rebellion was pulling; however, when Anakin managed to destroy them with the Force while in air and capture the best one of them, Jabba reconsidered the spending of his credits.

"Right, Anakin! Will you stand to be one child's army?"

"Tell me once I failed at that." He smiles the slightest, hiding his palpable fear within his golden eyes. He watched as the support people finished filling the Starfighter's gas tank, a positive sign given by one of the soldiers. Anakin was quick to jump into the cockpit, adjusting to the environment.

"Don't ask for the impossible!" twi'lek joked, running away from the Starfighter with the team that was preparing him. With the cockpit being closed and the wings of the big ship separating, showing off and displaying its massive size to the world, Anakin had already put on his oxygen mask and fixed his helmet, connecting the communication right away. "All right? The guns, the control panel, the pedals..." twi'lek asked compulsively in the communicator.

"All of it and possibly with everything in the clipboard of yours!"

"Gee... Good luck, Anakin. The Rebellion depends on you." she addressed in a whisper, turning off the communicator. A dry 'yes' from the child was heard by no one. As the engines started, the turbines exploded in heat, the ship being slowly guided to face the freighter's exit...! And in an explosion of fire, Anakin flew out the aperture, spinning in the air, and as soon as he pointed in the direction of the gigantic mass of suffering, not even radar was needed. The second burst of speed caused the engines to roar, the air being cut hard by Starfighter. As he had requested, gun control showed his favorites were ready for action at it's finest; 24 low-powered laser mini machine guns; 8 gunpowder rocket launchers, and two high-powered massive laser cannons. Taking the engines at full power, his red eyes staring into the open space through the mask, Anakin sent a strong message through the Force...

_I'll save you, Angel... _

'Cause now Anakin didn't mind. Everything he had was fed not only to the Dark Side but to the Light Side too. His memories of Kyp and his dying mother, of Obi-wan hating him, of all he'd been through as a slave and the two years of pure suffering he had after Shmi died... And then Padmé's smile appeared. His mother's smile as she said everything was fine and nested him. The good times beside Kyp, the kindness of Qui-gon... All that was good and bad in Anakin were fighting for control, which caused both hurricanes of the Force to meet and merge. Dark Side and Light Side, Anakin was leading them both in his hands at the same time. Just like his metaphor, Anakin's golden eyes turned two hurricanes of color; yellow and blue. He was like his father; he was destruction, he was salvation... Anakin is not just the Chosen One. He is the own descendant of the Force. And he was not letting anyone kill that precious Angel of his.

**—W****hile that—**

The hours passed and the laser rain continued. During all the chaos, the speeders managed to keep moving, passing over the bodies of those who fell dead; men of the Jabba or slaves, mostly slaves. A forward siege was formed by tanks and energy barriers by the Jabba men, so it became a sandwich with a lid for the Rebels, which was done sequentially was merely to go backward. A gigantic layer of dead bodies and destroyed speeders made this a task on the edge of the impossible. However, hours later, the sandwich was successfully removed, but the siege remained strong. Obi-wan and Qui-gon valued, above all, the safety of Queen Amidala.

Inside the reinforced speeder they had been since the beginning of this guerrilla war, Obi-wan was firing a mounted machine gun that he managed to bring to the top of the speeder with the Force. The maids, protecting the queen, shot through the windows with blasters they had caught in the weapons locker of the speeder. Qui-gon, in turn, drove the speeder extremely slow through all the destruction and bodies were thrown along the way. The situation was horrifying for them, since the small part of the battalion that was left and leading the front lines, with only one of the three generals left, was being massacred by the guns and tanks of Jabba's men, as well as a new legion of droids that had just arrived. The five hours of bloody battle were coming to a harsh end.

"DORMÉ!" shouted one of the maids, lowering herself to the level of the so-called maid. A laser shot had grazed her head, pulling out hair and flesh, leaving a huge black mark; but it was grazed enough not to kill her.

"I... I'm fine, Mrs. Amidala!" panting back and not even noticing what she had said, grabbing the blaster from the ground and, with her free hand, holding her bruised head. Padmé put her own blaster on the floor, keeping her from getting up, her eyes full of terror.

"No, you're not! Stay down, I'll make you a bandage." gave a clear order, her eyes trembling. Searching the various boxes that were brought near the windows, Padmé started a dressing on the head of the brown-haired maid. The others made mention of looking and, because of the sight of the injury, they feared to shoot too much. A tremor made the batha gel fall from Padmé's hand and roll through the metal of the speeder. Just before that, Obi-wan had rolled across the floor, escaping the plasma blast that destroyed the assembled machine gun, the explosion making the whole car rock. His clothes were completely worn out and blood stained his pants.

"They're aiming at us... We must leave quickly, master!" shouted Obi-wan, limping his lightsaber into the cockpit.

"We can't go out in the field, the chance to hit Queen Amidala is too big!" shouted Qui-gon, moving the speeder and watching the destruction in front of him.

Thousands of dead people were making piles on the ground, blood spraying from the walls and blackness from laser attacks all over the stones, as well as destroyed speeders also trying to reverse this place, which was large enough for only three large speeders to cross at the same time. Explosions would go up in the air with every shot that the tanks or guns of the soldiers trying to advance through the huge layer of destruction did. Padmé stepped forward, panting and extremely sweaty, the blaster in her hand.

"None of us can shoot, we are under very heavy fire! The armor will hold very little time." said the girl, her lip trembling. The situation was coming to a point where fleeing by the sands was wiser than being on the speeder. It wasn't going to be long before a missile blew the speeder up; one of 'em had hit Obi-wan's machine gun. Even worse was the sight that appeared before their eyes... The tanks were beginning to pass over the front lines of the Slaves who, with trouble, were trying to retreat. Men were crushed and shots were fired at the backs of those who tried to escape. The middle and front lines were suffering hundreds of losses immediately.

"If we continue here, we are doomed... We have to run, fast!" replied Qui-gon, trying to keep his cool. Leaving and supporting Obi-wan because of his injured leg, the Jedi master walked to Queen Amidala, who was hiding inside the speeder's reinforced room. Also opening the reserve armament, Obi-wan found what could be their best bet; energy shields. The front lines were trying to use them, but the massive attack was ending their lives quickly. Running away with them up could help, though. The maids would die for their queen if necessary, so they took the shields and, with the Jedi protecting the queen and the maids protecting everyone, they left the speeder to the laser field. Immediately the lasers were hitting them, but the women forced everything they had to protect the queen.

Dormé, however, had a sudden seizure as they walked through the destroyed bodies, the wound on her head taking a lot of it. A breach appeared in the defense for only a second and it was enough to hit the girl again, making her fall cold to the ground. The maids' eyes widened and, in fact, Padmé couldn't control her silent tears, trying to hold the shield uptight as the other women gathered to cover the space that Dormé had made. Obi-wan and Qui-gon did their best to protect the queen, diverting lost lasers that came from everywhere. Something, however, caught Obi-wan's attention... one of the maids. She kept whispering that cursed name; "Anakin...", simulating a kind of prayer for the boy to appear. And as bad as Obi-wan felt, if Anakin showed up now he'd be extremely useful. Even like a sith, he was strong and an impressive pilot. He hated him, but protecting the Queen was above his personal hatred.

For almost 15 minutes, the despair of crossing the huge, destructive corridor of death led everyone to their edge. Obi-wan was barely enduring the weariness, all the more so as his blood fell more and more. The maids had sore and torn arms, but they tried their best to keep their shields up and protect everyone inside the barrier, still dealing with Dormé's loss to the Jabba men. Qui-gon, at last, was more and more worried as he watched from afar the front lines of soldiers being destroyed by the more technological equipment and more trained soldiers of Jabba. Over 60% of all slaves had died already... And yet they fought vehemently against the enemy, hatred leaping from all space among the ones who managed to stay alive... And hope too. The hope that the Demon with no fear would appear to save them. Anakin carried incredible respect on the whole Rebellion, and this respect reached the point where, in this desperate situation, he would be the Messiah descending of the skies to save them.

... And there he was. The Force was clouded by all the feelings that engulfed the battlefield, but the pillar of Light and Darkness that Anakin is overshadowed everything else. Because of the mountainous area, air reinforcements were not requested by Jabba's men. Only a very skilled soldier piloting a ship would be able to pass through that area and overcome the terrain and weather conditions. Tremors happened when an extremely fast Starfighter crossed the area, spinning on his own axis with a marvelous ability, dodging any laser or rock that was in the way. Impressive skill, a great cornerstone in the Force... Anakin had just got arrived.

"Anakin is here." commented Qui-gon, watching the Starfighter pass between the trenches in the air, shaking the ground. There was silence among everyone when an orchestral relief came from the ladies. But Qui-gon could see the especially huge smile on the face of Queen Amidala's strangest maid, Padmé... The real Queen Amidala, so the dead maid had called her earlier. The master, however, couldn't smile upon the perhaps turning point this battle would have.

"Yes, I knew he would come... I felt he would save us!" He let Padmé go, the purple shield in his hand being squeezed tightly.

"And he's using the Dark Side at the same time as the Light Side..." commented Obi-wan, his remarkable dislike.

"The Jedi code could never encompass the Chosen One of the Force, Obi-wan. Try to understand that." Qui-gon said, and again, everyone began to move, but now with a completely renewed hope. Anakin crossed the skies with ferocity, leaving the two valleys with a record of 15 seconds of travel. At the same moment, he left the corridor of stone, the two high-powered cannons aimed perfectly at the tanks leading the front lines, blowing them into clouds of smoke and fire in under one second, as well as killing several nearby soldiers. With a twist of a nozzle, his mini machine guns started a shower of blue and purple lasers on the soldiers' lines, knocking down dozens in a few seconds; and the scare came soon after Anakin bent down almost to the ground, charring the soldiers and making them fly with the chock waves that Starfighter made in it's flying. Being an easy target while close to the ground, the cannons were aimed at him, but the speed he maneuvered made it impossible to hit him, dodging perfectly... Almost as if he predicted the future.

Raising the ship's beak during a barrel roll, the missile cannons pissed off the speeders and blew them up with incredible ease, creating huge flames and smoke between the firing lines of Jabba's soldiers. Seeing the advantage reaching them, the few soldiers of the Rebellion began to advance, taking up what was still usable of heavy weapons and, with a new will for blood, shot the frightened and confused enemies with the new piece on the game board. Anakin was like a mouse, incredibly hard to catch... Only he was also an extremely dangerous mouse. Anakin's greatest advantage in all this was his natural and trained ability to fight on land; with the vehicle made to withstand wars off planets, with impressive endurance and a protective shield as good as, the medium and low-power gunshots ricocheted off them; high-power shots, however, were problems. Being hit could bring him down if he wasn't careful, so the tanks were the first to be destroyed. There were times when Anakin threw flares at the tanks and, without a word, all the shots turned to the tanks, the Rebellion advancing through the siege, and Jabba's men retreating further and further. With a full hour, reinforcements from Jabba's men were coming... just like Anakin's reinforcements. A Starfighter leading over 80 specialized craft for ground vehicle combat and thousands of droids.

All night long until noon, the battle continued fervently. Starfighter fuel would only last a few more minutes, so Anakin had to be quick to finish the battle. Evasive and dangerous maneuvers took place in the air, all aiming to drop what was left of the high-powered bombs into the tanks. When Tatooine's suns rose high into the middle of the sky, Jabba's men began to flee, the whole siege destroyed and the Rebellion itself being formed. They had won that battle... But instinctively as he descended his ship into the Rebellion's safe areas, Anakin knew the war was lost. Jabba won, the Rebellion lost... This fight would be known in the history of the planet as one of the main fights of the Rebellion; 20 incessant hours of a straight killing. An extreme rescue, a turn of the tides and a crushing defeat. With a round of applause, the Starfighter landed on the ground; his carcass deteriorated and some of his weapons had their pipes melted. Three turbines had stopped running and smoke of a light gray color came out of the engines. If the battle had extended for perhaps two more hours, the Starfighter would have crossed its limit and Anakin would have been forced to put him down... In view of this, the chances of Jabba's men trying to overwhelm them were too great. The glass of the capsule rose, and by very little, Anakin did not fall from the inside when he took off his oxygen mask. His hands and feet trembled endlessly, an intense hunger forced his bowels and human needs hurt him from the inside. Applause and whistling ceased quickly in view of Anakin's situation and, hurriedly, a stretcher was brought to the Demon with no Fear.

Anakin was rushed to an open-air medical wing. Tranquilizers for the spasmodic limbs, analgesics and injections of serum and vitamins to suppress all the body's needs, batha gel to close the wounds that Anakin's muscle fibers had during the entire 20-hour pressure inside a high-speed ship... Lots of morphine for the intense pain. The child gave everything and more to prevent the sorry end of the Rebellion.

... And above everyone, Obi-wan knew it. Squeezing his lightsaber inside his clothing, his eyes under the boy lying in the medical wing of the freighter who arrived to transport the survivors back to Mos Sima. It would be too easy just to pull the saber and end this Sith's misery... But how would Obi-wan be able to call him a Sith after all he saw him do? Without him, there would be no survivors of the Rebellion. Queen Amidala would probably be dead... He gave everything of his mind and body to save his people... And yet he played the Dark Side of the Force. How could someone so 'good' use such horribly, crucified power? Obi-wan didn't understand. His cold eyes kept staring at the depressing situation of the child on the stretcher, breathing through braces and receiving constant injections into his veins and lymphatic channels.

"Is he okay?" an extra voice caught his attention. One of Queen Amidala's maids. She also sounded horrible, like all the survivors of that massacre.

"Hello there. No... But I think he's recovering."

"Oh, hi to you too." she bowed in respect, but never losing her gaze of worried. "How nice to hear that. I always trusted that he would come to our rescue..." she spoke calmly, walking to look at the boy more closely. Obi-wan knew it very well, she kept saying his name non-stop during the attempt to escape the speeder.

"Trusted? Why did you trust him?" he questioned, confused by that phrase of hers. There's no way to trust a sith... But then again, he wouldn't expect a maid to understand that.

"Because it shines in his eyes, don't you see? He's the one who wants to see the end of this war the most, I'm sure."

"To me, he seems to like all the blood she brings."

"Did you see that in the... 'Force'?"

"Yes, and the Force would never lie to me." That wasn't entirely true. The Force never said that. It just showed what the dark side of Anakin wanted.

"I see. If it were me, however, I don't think I would believe the Force." commented with a slight smile, sitting next to Anakin and observing his well-worn face. That comment was a bit offensive and Obi-wan couldn't help but keep a slightly irritated face.

"You think you're better than the Force to see something, so?"

"I don't understand it, so I don't think so. But it doesn't need a mystical thing like the Force to know when a person is looking for something. I think... Anakin just wants people around him. People who like him and admire him. It would be nice if the Force showed you a thing that anyone can easily spot."

"Excuse me, what's your name again?"

"Padmé..."

"Padmé. Remind me never, ever to consult you for any kind of decision. Being blind to the truth is something we Jedi abhor. If you'll excuse me, I'm leaving." With a neutral face to the maid, Obi-wan turned to leave the room and head in the direction of Qui-gon. After a day as full as this, he definitely needed a rest. Quiet, Padmé just let out a light snort, staring into the face of the 'Demon with no Fear'. If before she had no doubt that every word against him was a lie, now Padmé joked that Anakin might be her guardian angel. Ironically, he was the one who called her Angel, to begin with. Next to the little child, Padmé saw time begin to pass. She did not want company for the salty tears that began to leave her face, her fingers running around Anakin's threads... Dormé had perished on the battlefield. One of her best servants, but also her best friend. So many good memories in Naboo she had with her... The memories of a more peaceful time, where no CEI threatens to destroy the planet just to prove a point to the Republic.

Naboo, the planet so peaceful that it never raises its weapons to others... Suffering from the CEI's menace. She hated losing people... Dormé made her heart burn with pain, but the thought of her entire planet dying; of the thousands, billions of Naboo's good people being killed... It made her hurt non-stop inside. Her tears became more and more frequent in that small and silent closed room, where the only noise was the warrior child's breathing on the stretcher.

For a few minutes, she stood there, crying to no one and thinking about her great friend. This continued until, suddenly, a trembling hand stood over her face, scaring her at first. Her brown, swollen eyes stared at Anakin, blue eyes filled with enormous physical and mental pain... And, quivering, his finger passed through Padmé's left eye, wiping a few tears that were piling up there. Bringing his finger to himself, Anakin let Padmé's tears fall on his face.

"It must... It must get lighter... If we share the pain..." he whispered to her. Padmé opened her mouth in a depressing surprise. She already knew how much he was suffering, but did he still contemplate easing her own suffering? He was so kind and at the same time so sad. With a laugh of those same emotions, Padmé wiped her very tears with her fists.

"Forgive me, Anakin... You fought so hard, you tried so hard. I-I shouldn't have disturbed your rest. I'm just leaving." trying to get up to get out of place, Padmé stopped when her wrist was held by Anakin's little hand.

"My mama... She's gone. Dad's gone, Kyp's gone... Don't go too... please." He asked sincerely, his painful voice as he shaved his throat. Hearing his request was a punch in the stomach for Padmé. He knew the weight of a loss, so did Padmé... In those moments, you just want someone to be at your side. Anakin just lost practically the entire Rebellion during just one attack. How bad was he? How bad was his mind? Her heart forced her to sit back in the chair, taking the child's hand and squeezing it tightly, her tears coming back down. She couldn't even begin to imagine how much Anakin was suffering... And he clearly knew how much Padmé was suffering and yet he offered himself to share the burden with her. She wasn't going to leave him alone, she couldn't do that with a simple child, who bears one of the biggest hearts she ever had the pleasure to meet.

"All right... I'll stay here with you, Anakin."

"Thank you, Padmé."

"So, do you remember my name?" joked, a little laugh coming out of your lips.

"And how in the world could I forget it?"

"Oh no, you fool!" He laughed a little more, the tears coming down crooked when the jaws rose at the corners of his mouth. Anakin also tried to smile, muffled and hidden by his oxygen mask. "Are you that sweet with all the girls?"

"Only with you." His laughter was accompanied by a light cough, Padmé shaking his hand a little harder. "Shit... Sorry for the curse word. I think there's sand in my socks." He let out with a little groaning, snapping his toes."

"Before we left for this medical wing on a freighter, you spent some time in an open wing."

"Makes sense... I hate sand..."

"Tatooine is just desert, I wonder how you put up with it then." she wasn't ready for what came next.

"I think that's exactly why. Sand... reminds me of them. Reminds me of Watto... reminds me of my mother." With 'them', she thought it was the Tusken. Padmé was a bit afraid to hear that from him. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to scare you."

"It wasn't scared I just got a little... bewildered. I just heard some fragmented information about you and your past. I think it was too sudden." she let go, her free hand moving the chocolate locks of her hair.

"I think it's good to keep it that way..."

"What do you mean?" she asked, morbidly curious.

"My story... It's just not fun. I've done a lot and ended like... this. There's nothing good to get out of my life." Ani whispered, coughing lightly while making some uncomfortable movements with his feet. Padmé stared at him for a few seconds, thinking, her heart trembling with the idea that those words about Anakin really being a vicious, bloodthirsty killer, coming back to her head. Is he really like that? Or is there something else... His whole story would take that vision of her from a tragic hero, which is how she sees the boy? Her curiosity as a politician spoke loudly, but the curiosity of her heart spoke even louder. In a simple handshake of Anakin's hand, she spoke sincerely.

"Tell me about it."

"You don't want to hear..."

"Tell me, please... I want to hear, and I know you're looking for someone desperately to hear you, Anakin." he opened his mouth to refute it, just to stop and see that he really couldn't... Because she was right. He didn't tell Qui-gon or Obi-wan, it all came out in loose pieces. If he told Padmé, she'd be the first to know exactly what happened to him in the last few years, excluding Kyp, who saw it all happen... All that avalanche of emotions and feelings would be poured into her at once. This made his heart try to refute the idea, the thought that she would hate him by gaining space... But, the grip she gave his hand, the angelic warmth being transmitted to his fingers.

"Do you really want to?..."

"Yes, I want to hear it from you." she seemed convinced in that decision. Anakin stopped for a moment, looking into Padmé's beautiful brown eyes.

"But... You'll have to give me something in return." It was an attempt to turn her back in the decision, but the dazzling smile she gave, wiping her teary-red eyes one last time, made his mind, metaphorically, gulp dry.

"Sounds fair to me!"

"Well... Uh... From the beginning?"

"From where else?"

"Right... Can I ask you exactly what you're going to tell me?" Trying to prolong the conversation and being indirect didn't work either, it just made her more curious about the upcoming discussion. To be honest, it was a trait of her personality that was making his heart palpitate faster and faster... She doesn't give up easily from what she wants. She has the beauty of an angel and the personality of a strong person.

"What would you like to know from a simple handmaid like me?"

"Places... Beautiful places. I always wanted to leave Tatooine, see many places... Have you visited many pretty places? With water and salt dunes?" he'd really forgotten the name of the thing now, his breathing compassed and a little more certain in the oxygen mask, showing sights of recuperation.

"Water and salt dunes... Oh, oceans?" she laughed a little, seeing his eyes open a bit more.

"Yes, that's right! Can you tell me about them? And the big areas full of trees and plants... Forests! And animals too, the various species..." both their minds were, strangely, moving away from their pitiful experiences, which would have been the topic of this 'sharing of lives and memories'. Still, no one complained when the two children just enjoyed each other's company. Yet, it was just a facade... Time or another, Anakin would have to tell Padmé about his life.

* * *

**Fun fact: Here in Brazil, Star wars didn't made a huge success like in the US, but Silvio Santos, one of the most famous man on TV, made the 'pranks'. **

**In the first one, he brought some kids to a room full styled on a Star wars ship. Then Yoda appeared and taught the kids how to use the Force, then C3-P0 and R2 appear, a Jedi knight then and, finally, Darth Vader and troopers. One of the kids even spanked one of the troopers with the lightsaber, freaking out the Jedi knight. It was really sweet, fun and magical to the kids. **

**If you want to watch the entire prank, here it is; 'O Escolhido - The Chosen One I Câmeras Escondidas (11/1/16)'**


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